What Type of Awareness Does Binocular Rivalry Assess?

Nathan Giles; Hakwan Lau; Brian Odegaard

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.010

What Type of Awareness Does Binocular Rivalry Assess?

Trends Cogn Sci. 2016 Oct;20(10):719-720. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.08.010. Epub 2016 Sep 7.

Authors

Nathan Giles¹, Hakwan Lau², Brian Odegaard³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: ngiles@g.ucla.edu.
² Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Brain Research Institute, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: odegaard.brian@gmail.com.

Abstract

Recent experiments demonstrate that invisible stimulus features can induce binocular rivalry, indicating the phenomenon may be caused by differences in perceptual signal strength rather than conscious selection processes. Here, we clarify binocular rivalry's role in consciousness research by highlighting a critical difference between two distinct types of visual awareness.

Keywords: Awareness; Binocular rivalry; Blindsight; Consciousness.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Awareness*
Consciousness
Humans
Photic Stimulation
Vision, Binocular*
Visual Perception*

Grants and funding

R01 NS088628/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States