J. Cogn. Neurosci.
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(Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2005;17:1897-1906.)
© 2005 The MIT Press

The Cerebral Response during Subjective Choice with and without Self-reference

Sterling C. Johnson1,2, Taylor W. Schmitz1,2, Tisha N. Kawahara-Baccus1,2, Howard A. Rowley2, Andrew L. Alexander2, Jonghoon Lee2 and Richard J. Davidson2

1 William S. Middleton VA Medical Center, Madison WI, 2 University of Wisconsin—Madison

Reprint requests should be sent to Sterling C. Johnson, William S. Middleton VA Hospital (11G), 2500 Overlook Terrace, Madison, WI 53705, or via e-mail: scj{at}medicine.wisc.edu.

The anterior medial prefrontal (AMPFC) and retrosplenial (RSC) cortices are active during self-referential decision-making tasks such as when participants appraise traits and abilities, or current affect. Other appraisal tasks requiring an evaluative decision or mental representation, such as theory of mind and perspective-taking tasks, also involve these regions. In many instances, these types of decisions involve a subjective opinion or preference, but also a degree of ambiguity in the decision, rather than a strictly veridical response. However, this ambiguity is generally not controlled for in studies that examine self-referential decision-making. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with 17 healthy adults, we examined neural processes associated with subjective decision-making with and without an overt self-referential component. The task required subjective decisions about colors—regarding self-preference (internal subjective decision) or color similarity (external subjective decision) under conditions where there was no objectively correct response. Results indicated greater activation in the AMPFC, RSC, and caudate nucleus during internal subjective decision-making. The findings suggest that self-referential processing, rather than subjective judgments among ambiguous response alternatives, accounted for the AMPFC and RSC response.




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