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Visibility, visual awareness, and visual masking of simple unattended targets are confined to areas in the occipital cortex beyond human V1/V2
Journal Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Publication Date
2005-11-10
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Publication Volume
102
Publication Issue
47
Publication Begin
17178
Publication End
17183
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Abstract
In visual masking, visible targets are rendered invisible by modifying the context in which they are presented, but not by modifying the targets themselves. Here, we localize the neuronal correlates of visual awareness in the human brain by using visual masking illusions. We compare monoptic visual masking activation, which we find within all retinotopic visual areas, with dichoptic masking activation, which we find only in those retinotopic areas downstream of V2. Because monoptic and dichoptic masking are equivalent in magnitude perceptually, the present results establish a lower bound for maintenance of visual awareness of simple unattended targets. Moreover, we find that awareness-correlated circuits for simple targets are restricted to the occipital lobe. This finding provides evidence of an upper boundary in the visual hierarchy for visual awareness of simple unattended targets, thus constraining the location of circuits that maintain the visibility of simple targets to occipital areas beyond V1/V2.
Citation
Tse PU, Martinez-Conde S, Schlegel AA, Macknik SL. Visibility, visual awareness, and visual masking of simple unattended targets are confined to areas in the occipital cortex beyond human V1/V2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Nov 22;102(47):17178-83. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0508010102. Epub 2005 Nov 10. PMID: 16282374; PMCID: PMC1282175.