scholarly journals General markers of conscious visual perception and their timing

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renate Rutiku ◽  
Jaan Aru ◽  
Annika Tallinn ◽  
Talis Bachmann
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Amplitude Fluctuation ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Onset Latency ◽  
Threshold Contrast ◽  
Stimulus Specificity ◽  
Near Threshold

The goal of the present investigation was to identify reliable markers of conscious visual perception and to characterize their onset latency and its variability. To that end many visual stimuli from different categories were presented at near-threshold contrast and contrastive analyses were carried out on 100 balanced subsets of the data. N200 and P300 were the two reliable markers of conscious perception common to all perceived stimuli and absent for all nonperceived stimuli. The estimated mean onset latency for both markers was shortly after 200 ms. However, the onset latency of both of these markers of conscious perception showed considerable variability depending on which subsets of the data were considered. Some of this variability could be attributed to noise, but it was first and foremost the amplitude fluctuation in the condition without conscious perception that explained the variability in onset latencies of the markers of conscious perception. The present results help to understand why different studies have observed different onset times for the neural correlates of conscious perception. Moreover, the consciousness markers explored here have more generality as stimulus specificity was reduced.

scholarly journals Distinct Contributions of Nonpredictive and Predictive Peripheral Cues to Visual Conscious Perception: an MEG study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Spagna ◽  
Dimitri J. Bayle ◽  
Zaira Romeo ◽  
Lydia Yahia-Cherif ◽  
Ana B. Chica ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Parietal Lobes ◽  
The Right ◽  
Near Threshold

AbstractDo we need attention to become aware of an external event? We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) in human participants to assess the effects of nonpredictive and predictive supra-threshold peripheral visual cues on the conscious perception of near-threshold Gabor patches. Both nonpredictive and predictive valid cues increased the number of detected targets, and shifted the response criterion towards a more liberal decision. Predictive cues unexpectedly induced a greater sensitivity (d’) for invalid trials than for valid trials. With nonpredictive cues, seen targets were associated with right-lateralized frontoparietal feed-forward and feedback sweeps. For seen targets there was increased connectivity among visual regions, and between these areas and the inferior parietal lobes and the anterior insular cortices (AIC), bilaterally. Valid predictive cues interacted with conscious target detection, with greater activation of areas mostly located in the left hemisphere, especially in the frontoparietal network and temporoparietal junction, and induced an increased connectivity between the right AIC and areas of the visual ventral stream in the seen condition only. Thus, neural activity induced by nonpredictive and predictive spatial cues can enhance conscious visual perception through distinct mechanisms, mostly relying on frontoparietal activity in the right or left hemisphere, respectively. Connectivity involving the AIC participates in shaping the interaction between attention and conscious visual perception.Significance StatementDo we need to pay attention to external objects in order to become aware of them? Characterizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of attentional effects on visual perception is critical to understand how humans process information coming from relevant aspects of their environment. Participants detected near-threshold visual targets preceded by supra-threshold spatial cues with varying degrees of predictivity, while their brain activity was recorded using magnetoencephalography. Results demonstrated that spatial cues, especially when predictive, biased participants’ conscious perception through an early recruitment of frontoparietal regions. This work highlights an interactive pattern between spatial attention and consciousness, as shown by the effects of attention-related regions on visual sensory cortices bilaterally, consistent with the hypothesis that attention is a pathway to conscious perception.

scholarly journals Decoding across sensory modalities reveals common supramodal signatures of conscious perception

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (13) ◽  
pp. 7437-7446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëtan Sanchez ◽  
Thomas Hartmann ◽  
Marco Fuscà ◽  
Gianpaolo Demarchi ◽  
Nathan Weisz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Near Threshold

An increasing number of studies highlight common brain regions and processes in mediating conscious sensory experience. While most studies have been performed in the visual modality, it is implicitly assumed that similar processes are involved in other sensory modalities. However, the existence of supramodal neural processes related to conscious perception has not been convincingly shown so far. Here, we aim to directly address this issue by investigating whether neural correlates of conscious perception in one modality can predict conscious perception in a different modality. In two separate experiments, we presented participants with successive blocks of near-threshold tasks involving subjective reports of tactile, visual, or auditory stimuli during the same magnetoencephalography (MEG) acquisition. Using decoding analysis in the poststimulus period between sensory modalities, our first experiment uncovered supramodal spatiotemporal neural activity patterns predicting conscious perception of the feeble stimulation. Strikingly, these supramodal patterns included activity in primary sensory regions not directly relevant to the task (e.g., neural activity in visual cortex predicting conscious perception of auditory near-threshold stimulation). We carefully replicate our results in a control experiment that furthermore show that the relevant patterns are independent of the type of report (i.e., whether conscious perception was reported by pressing or withholding a button press). Using standard paradigms for probing neural correlates of conscious perception, our findings reveal a common signature of conscious access across sensory modalities and illustrate the temporally late and widespread broadcasting of neural representations, even into task-unrelated primary sensory processing regions.

scholarly journals Decoding across sensory modalities reveals common supramodal signatures of conscious perception

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëtan Sanchez ◽  
Thomas Hartmann ◽  
Marco Fuscà ◽  
Gianpaolo Demarchi ◽  
Nathan Weisz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Near Threshold

AbstractAn increasing number of studies highlight common brain regions and processes in mediating conscious sensory experience. While most studies have been performed in the visual modality, it is implicitly assumed that similar processes are involved in other sensory modalities. However, the existence of supramodal neural processes related to conscious perception has not been convincingly shown so far. Here, we aim to directly address this issue by investigating whether neural correlates of conscious perception in one modality can predict conscious perception in a different modality. In two separate experiments, we presented participants with successive blocks of near-threshold tasks involving tactile, visual or auditory stimuli during the same magnetoencephalography (MEG) acquisition. Using decoding analysis in the post-stimulus period between sensory modalities, our first experiment uncovered supramodal spatio-temporal neural activity patterns predicting conscious perception of the feeble stimulation. Strikingly, these supramodal patterns included activity in primary sensory regions not directly relevant to the task (e.g. neural activity in visual cortex predicting conscious perception of auditory near-threshold stimulation). We carefully replicate our results in a control experiment that furthermore show that the relevant patterns are independent of the type of report (i.e. whether conscious perception was reported by pressing or withholding a button-press). Using standard paradigms for probing neural correlates of conscious perception, our findings reveal a common signature of conscious access across sensory modalities and illustrate the temporally late and widespread broadcasting of neural representations, even into task-unrelated primary sensory processing regions.

Some Factors Affecting Reaction Times to Auditory Stimuli in Mental Patients

1954 ◽  
Vol 100 (419) ◽  
pp. 462-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. L. Hall ◽  
E. Stride
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Mental Patients ◽  
Personal Equation ◽  
Work Up

A number of studies on reaction time (R.T.) latency to visual and auditory stimuli in psychotic patients has been reported since the first investigations on the personal equation were carried out. The general trends from the work up to 1943 are well summarized by Hunt (1944), while Granger's (1953) review of “Personality and visual perception” contains a summary of the studies on R.T. to visual stimuli.

Binocular rivalry and emotion: Implications for neural correlates of consciousness and emotional biases in conscious perception

Cortex ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 539-555
Author(s):  
María Hernández-Lorca ◽  
Kristian Sandberg ◽  
Dominique Kessel ◽  
Uxía Fernández-Folgueiras ◽  
Morten Overgaard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Binocular Rivalry ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness

scholarly journals A roadmap for the study of conscious audition and its neural basis

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1714) ◽  
pp. 20160103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Dykstra ◽  
Peter A. Cariani ◽  
Alexander Gutschalk
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Scene Analysis ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Auditory Scenes ◽  
Shed Light

How and which aspects of neural activity give rise to subjective perceptual experience—i.e. conscious perception—is a fundamental question of neuroscience. To date, the vast majority of work concerning this question has come from vision, raising the issue of generalizability of prominent resulting theories. However, recent work has begun to shed light on the neural processes subserving conscious perception in other modalities, particularly audition. Here, we outline a roadmap for the future study of conscious auditory perception and its neural basis, paying particular attention to how conscious perception emerges (and of which elements or groups of elements) in complex auditory scenes. We begin by discussing the functional role of the auditory system, particularly as it pertains to conscious perception. Next, we ask: what are the phenomena that need to be explained by a theory of conscious auditory perception? After surveying the available literature for candidate neural correlates, we end by considering the implications that such results have for a general theory of conscious perception as well as prominent outstanding questions and what approaches/techniques can best be used to address them. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’.

Neural correlates of conscious perception in the attentional blink

NeuroImage ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 704-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Kranczioch ◽  
Stefan Debener ◽  
Jens Schwarzbach ◽  
Rainer Goebel ◽  
Andreas K. Engel
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Conscious Perception
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