RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Processing of subjectively and objectively invisible stimuli in human visual cortex
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.11.11.376681
DO 10.1101/2020.11.11.376681
A1 Stein, Timo
A1 Kaiser, Daniel
A1 Fahrenfort, Johannes J.
A1 van Gaal, Simon
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/11/2020.11.11.376681.abstract
AB The study of unconscious processing requires a measure of conscious awareness. Awareness measures can be either subjective (based on participant’s report) or objective (based on perceptual performance). The preferred awareness measure depends on the theoretical position about consciousness, and may influence conclusions about the extent of unconscious processing and about the neural correlates of consciousness. We obtained fMRI measurements from 43 subjects while they viewed masked faces and houses that were either subjectively or objectively invisible. We show that neural representations of objectively invisible faces and houses are limited to visual (shape-related) object properties, while subjectively invisible stimuli are processed up to more abstract, categorical levels of representation. These results demonstrate that the hypothesized extent of unconscious information processing is determined by the measurement approach. Furthermore, our data show that subjective and objective approaches are associated with different neural correlates of consciousness and thus have implications for neural theories of consciousness.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.