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Induced gamma activity is associated with conscious awareness of pattern masked nouns
Christopher Summerfield1, Anthony Ian Jack, Adrian Philip Burgess
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Hospital Clinic, c/Casanova 143, 08036, Barcelona, Spain. summerfd@paradox.psych.columbia.edu
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the gamma frequency range and conscious awareness of a visual stimulus. EEG was recorded from subjects while they were shown backward-masked words only some of which they were able to discriminate correctly. The results showed that activity in the gamma frequency range increased with reported awareness of a word independently of whether it was correctly discriminated or not. It is concluded that gamma power is associated with awareness-dependent visual processing but not with processing that occurs in the absence of awareness.