Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
09:52
How to Find Effects of Stimulus Processing on Event Related Brain Potentials of Close Others when Hyperscanning Partners
Published on: May 31, 2018
Event-related brain potential correlates of visual awareness
Mika Koivisto1, Antti Revonsuo
1Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Finland. mika.koivisto@utu.fi
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
|December 17, 2009
Summary
This review identifies the visual awareness negativity (VAN) as a key electrophysiological marker for visual awareness. VAN consistently reflects conscious visual perception, emerging approximately 200 ms after visual stimulus onset.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Electrophysiology
Background:
- Visual awareness, the subjective experience of seeing, is studied using electrophysiological recordings.
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) differentiate stimuli that enter awareness from those that do not.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review electrophysiological correlates of visual awareness.
- To identify the most reliable neural marker for visual awareness.
Main Methods:
- Review of studies examining electrophysiological differences in ERPs based on stimulus awareness.
- Analysis of candidate ERP components: P1, visual awareness negativity (VAN), and late positivity (LP).
Main Results:
- Three ERP components (P1, VAN, LP) were investigated as correlates of visual awareness.
- Visual awareness negativity (VAN) emerged as the most consistent correlate across various awareness manipulations.
- VAN appears independent of nonspatial attention but dependent on spatial attention.
Conclusions:
- Visual awareness consistently emerges around 200 ms post-stimulation.
- This emergence is linked to the activation of posterior occipito-temporal and parietal brain networks.
- VAN is proposed as a robust electrophysiological marker for visual awareness.
