Are we conscious at all times? Neural evidence for a two-stage model of visual processing
Menetrey, M. Q.; Herzog, M. H.; Pascucci, D.
Show abstract
In postdictive effects, where later events influence the perception of earlier ones, conscious perception is preceded by extended periods of unconscious processing. This is evident in the Sequential Metacontrast (SQM) paradigm, in which vernier offsets are unconsciously integrated over several hundred milliseconds. Regardless of whether one or multiple verniers are shown, only a single offset is perceived along a motion stream. The SQM, along with other postdictive phenomena, thus provides a unique opportunity to dissociate unconscious from conscious stages of visual processing, as these stages are well separated in time. Using EEG during the SQM, we identified two distinct stages of neural activity: an early occipital EEG activity pattern ([~]200 ms after the initial vernier) associated with unconscious processing, and a later centro-parietal EEG pattern ([~]400-600 ms after SQM onset) associated with the integrated percept and behavioral report. We propose that the transition between these neural patterns marks the shift from unconscious encoding of individual visual stimuli to their integrated percept.
Matching journals
The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Spontaneous alpha-band oscillations bias subjective contrast perception 97%
- Multivariate Pattern Analysis of EEG Reveals Neural Mechanism of Naturalistic Target Processing in Attentional Blink 97%
- Novel verbal instructions recruit abstract neural patterns of time-variable information dimensionality 97%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.