Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience

Subjective value can impact early stages of the perceptual decision-making process, leading to biased choices that prioritize subjective incentives over sensory evidence. Here we aim to understand how the decision process integrates goal-relevant evidence in the face of competing subjective information. We propose that this integration requires higher cognitive control, reflected by increases in frontal theta band oscillations. Using complex realistic stimuli, we observed that subjective preference influenced decision latency and choices independently of sensory evidence and motor anticipation, suggesting automatic integration of value-based evidence. Consistent with our hypothesis, incongruent trials, where subjective value and sensory information conflicted, were associated with higher theta activity, indicating heightened cognitive conflict. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that variations in theta activity accounted for individual differences in behaviour, and point out the role of participants' prior in conflict perception.