Individual visual working memory capacities and related brain oscillatory activities are modulated by color preferences.

Subjective preferences affect many processes, including motivation, along with individual differences. Although incentive motivations are proposed to increase our limited visual working memory (VWM) capacity, much less is known about the effects of subjective preferences on VWM-related brain systems, such as the prefrontal and parietal cortices. Here, we investigate the differences in VWM capacities and brain activities during presentation of preferred and non-preferred colors. To this end, we used time-frequency (TF) analyses of electroencephalograph (EEG) data recorded during a delayed-response task. Behavioral results showed that the individual VWM capacities of preferred colors were significantly higher than those of non-preferred colors. The EEG results showed that the frontal theta and beta amplitudes for maintenance of preferred colors were higher than those of non-preferred colors. Interestingly, the frontal beta amplitudes were consistent with recent EEG recordings of the effects of reward on VWM systems, in that they were strongly and individually correlated with increasing VWM capacities from non-preferred to preferred colors. These results suggest that subjective preferences affect VWM systems in a similar manner to reward-incentive motivations.