PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Janis K. Hesse
AU  - Doris Y. Tsao
TI  - Representation of conscious percept without report in the macaque face patch network
AID  - 10.1101/2020.04.22.047522
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.04.22.047522
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/24/2020.04.22.047522.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/24/2020.04.22.047522.full
AB  - A powerful paradigm to identify the neural correlates of consciousness is binocular rivalry, wherein a constant visual stimulus evokes a varying conscious percept. It has recently been suggested that activity modulations observed during rivalry could represent the act of report rather than the conscious percept itself. Here, we performed single-unit recordings from face patches in macaque inferotemporal (IT) cortex using a no-report paradigm in which the animal’s conscious percept was inferred from eye movements. We found high proportions of IT neurons represented the conscious percept even without active report. Population activity in single trials, measured using a new 128-site Neuropixels-like electrode, was more weakly modulated by rivalry than by physical stimulus transitions, but nevertheless allowed decoding of the changing conscious percept. These findings suggest that macaque face patches encode both the physical stimulus and the animal’s conscious visual percept, and the latter encoding does not require active report.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.