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The color phi phenomenon: Not so special, after all?
Lars Keuninckx1, Axel Cleeremans1
1Consciousness, Cognition & Computation Group (CO3), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium.
Plos Computational Biology
|September 3, 2021
Summary
Anomalous time reversal in neural networks, including the phi phenomenon, can occur due to inherent processing, not consciousness. These findings suggest the color phi phenomenon is an artifact of sensory processing.
Area of Science:
- Computational Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Artificial Intelligence
Background:
- The phi phenomenon and its color variant are perceptual illusions.
- Understanding their neural basis is key to understanding sensory processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emergence of anomalous time reversal and the color phi phenomenon in simplified neural network models.
- To explore if these phenomena are artifacts of neural processing or indicative of higher cognitive functions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized small connectionist models with biologically plausible neurons.
- Simulated networks exhibiting anomalous time reversal and the phi phenomenon.
- Employed echo state networks (a type of recurrent neural network) to model the color phi phenomenon.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated anomalous time reversal of stimuli and responses in small connectionist models.
- Observed a
- ghost
- response, similar to the phi phenomenon, caused by priming and feedforward paths.
- Showed the color phi phenomenon emerging in an echo state network as a dynamical processing artifact, without explicit training.
Conclusions:
- The color phi phenomenon may arise from inherent dynamical and nonlinear sensory processing in the brain.
- These findings suggest the color phi phenomenon is not necessarily linked to consciousness.
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