Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Visual System

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Understanding Consciousness

Understanding Consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as the state of being aware of and able to think about one's existence, sensations, and surroundings. It encompasses two major components: awareness and arousal. Awareness pertains to the recognition of environmental stimuli and internal states. At the same time, arousal refers to the physiological readiness to engage with these stimuli, which varies significantly between states like sleep and wakefulness.
Sleep, a crucial state, is characterized by reduced...

Visual Agnosia

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round...

Anatomy of the Eyeball

Anatomy of the Eyeball

The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Split-Brain: What We Know Now and Why This is Important for Understanding Consciousness.

Neuropsychology review·2020

Same author

Scene complexity modulates degree of feedback activity during object detection in natural scenes.

PLoS computational biology·2019

Same author

Challenges for theories of consciousness: seeing or knowing, the missing ingredient and how to deal with panpsychism.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2018

Same author

Cross-cueing cannot explain unified control in split-brain patients.

Brain : a journal of neurology·2017

Same author

The Split-Brain Phenomenon Revisited: A Single Conscious Agent with Split Perception.

Trends in cognitive sciences·2017

Same author

Conscious visual memory with minimal attention.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2017

Same journal

From silenced shock to strategic resilience: a longitudinal qualitative study of nurse residents' trajectory in coping with patient verbal abuse.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same journal

Validation of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) for forest firefighters: implications for human-technology interaction and occupational safety in the future of work.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same journal

Development and validation of the football emotion scale for Chinese youth players: a psychometric study.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same journal

From online engagement to offline action: how social media environmental engagement shapes university students' pro-environmental citizenship through intrinsic motivation and personal norms.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same journal

The multidimensional inventory of religious/spiritual wellbeing in Hungarian language: psychometric properties and initial validation.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Same journal

Effects of occupational factors on depression in Chinese veterans: a fsQCA study based on 2022 CFPS data.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Visual Functions Generating Conscious Seeing.

Victor A F Lamme¹

¹Department of Psychology, Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Frontiers in Psychology

|March 3, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study identifies four stages of vision, from unconscious to conscious. Perceptual organization is key to understanding the transition from unconscious to conscious seeing.

Keywords:

consciousness global neuronal workspace theory higher order thought theory integrated information theory neural correlate of consciousness perceptual organization recurrent processing theory

More Related Videos

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Theories of Consciousness

Background:

Distinguishing conscious from unconscious visual processing is crucial for understanding perception.
Existing models of consciousness offer different perspectives on visual awareness.

Purpose of the Study:

To review visual functions associated with conscious versus unconscious vision.
To propose a framework for understanding the stages and mechanisms of visual awareness.
To evaluate implications for prominent theories of consciousness.

Main Methods:

Review of scientific literature on visual functions and consciousness.
Identification and categorization of distinct visual processing stages.
Analysis of the role of perceptual organization in visual awareness.

Main Results:

Four stages of vision identified: fully invisible, subjectively invisible, unattended, and clearly visible.
Feature extraction, categorization, and visual inference may occur during unconscious stages.
Perceptual organization functions (grouping, figure-ground segregation) are active across multiple stages, including inattention.

Conclusions:

Perceptual organization is central to the transition from unconscious to conscious vision.
The proposed framework offers insights into how different visual functions map onto stages of awareness.
Findings have implications for evaluating and refining theories of consciousness, including Recurrent Processing Theory, Higher Order Thought Theory, Integrated Information Theory, and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory.