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Published on: November 10, 2010
Electromagnetic responses to invisible face stimuli during binocular suppression
Philipp Sterzer1, Lauri Jalkanen, Geraint Rees
1Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK. philipp.sterzer@charite.de
Neuroimage
|March 17, 2009
Summary
Even when faces are invisible due to binocular suppression, the brain still processes them specifically. This suggests complex visual information is preserved even when awareness is lost.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Binocular suppression renders one image invisible during competing monocular input.
- This phenomenon is thought to involve neural competition across visual processing levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if complex stimulus information, specifically faces, is processed in higher visual areas during binocular suppression.
- To determine if category-specific brain responses occur even when stimuli are invisible.
Main Methods:
- Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to record brain activity.
- Continuous flash suppression (CFS) rendered face and house stimuli invisible.
- Behavioral tasks assessed stimulus detection and classification during CFS.
Main Results:
- Behavioral tasks confirmed stimuli were undetectable and unclassifiable when invisible.
- Despite reduced amplitude, a face-specific signal (M170) showed significantly greater response to invisible faces than invisible houses.
- This face-specific response occurred at the expected M170 latency and location.
Conclusions:
- Category-specific processing, particularly for faces, occurs in the ventral visual pathway even when stimuli are suppressed from awareness.
- Complex visual information is preserved at advanced processing stages despite competitive interactions at earlier levels.
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