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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 5, 2026

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

Published on: March 8, 2019

Perceptual integration without conscious access.

Johannes J Fahrenfort¹, Jonathan van Leeuwen², Christian N L Olivers²

¹Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; fahrenfort.work@gmail.com.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|March 23, 2017

Summary

Conscious awareness is not required for perceptual integration. Even when the attentional blink hinders conscious decisions, the brain can still decode integrated visual percepts using EEG data.

Keywords:

access consciousness attentional blink masking perceptual integration phenomenal consciousness

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

The visual system integrates fragmented input into coherent percepts.
The role of conscious access in perceptual integration remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if conscious access is necessary for perceptual integration.
To dissociate perceptual integration from conscious awareness.

Main Methods:

Manipulating conscious access using the attentional blink paradigm.
Analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG) data with multivariate classification.
Disrupting visual perception using visual masking.

Main Results:

Behavioral performance showed impaired conscious decisions on integrated percepts during attentional blink.
Multivariate EEG decoding revealed intact integration processing despite impaired conscious access.
Visual masking impaired both conscious decisions and EEG decoding of integrated percepts.

Conclusions:

Conscious access and perceptual integration can be dissociated.
Perceptual integration can occur outside of conscious awareness.
EEG decoding offers a window into unconscious perceptual processing.