Abstract
We examined the recently discovered phenomenon of Adaptation-Induced Blindness (AIB), in which highly visible gratings with gradual onset profiles become invisible after exposure to a rapidly flickering grating, even at very high contrasts. Using very similar stimuli to those in the original AIB experiment, we replicated the original effect across multiple contrast levels, with observers at chance in detecting the gradual onset stimuli at all contrasts. Then, using full-contrast target stimuli with either abrupt or gradual onsets, we tested both the orientation tuning and interocular transfer of AIB. If, as the original authors suggested, AIB were a high-level (perhaps parietally mediated) effect resulting from the ‘gating’ of awareness, we would not expect the effects of AIB to be tuned to the adapting orientation, and the effect should transfer interocularly. Instead, we find that AIB (which was present only for the gradual onset target stimuli) is both tightly orientation-tuned and shows absolutely no interocular transfer, consistent with a very early cortical locus.
Highlights
We examined the recently discovered phenomenon of Adaptation-Induced Blindness (AIB), in which highly visible gratings with gradual onset profiles become invisible after exposure to a rapidly flickering grating, even at very high contrasts
They further suggest that even though the ‘invisible’ stimuli are not available to awareness, they can still cause low-level effects such as the tilt illusion, suggesting that there is some processing of the suppressed stimuli at lower levels of visual processing, such as primary visual cortex (V1)
We went on to test whether it differed in other ways from classical contrast adaptation; would it transfer between the eyes, or to target stimuli at different orientations from the adapting stimulus? If, as Motoyoshi and Hayakawa suggest, the effect is a higher level, parietal effect involving attentional gating, it should be occurring at levels beyond binocular combination, and so we should expect to see full interocular transfer and, potentially, little or no orientation tuning
Summary
We examined the recently discovered phenomenon of Adaptation-Induced Blindness (AIB), in which highly visible gratings with gradual onset profiles become invisible after exposure to a rapidly flickering grating, even at very high contrasts. Following prolonged exposure to $10 Hz motion, a target grating is ramped on from zero to full (or near full) contrast, with either a gradual or an abrupt temporal profile The slope of this onset ramp has a profound effect on subsequent perception: whereas high-contrast patterns with abrupt onsets are clearly visible ( still somewhat affected), gradually presented patterns become temporarily ‘invisible’. Motoyoshi and Hayakawa (2010) attribute this effect to relatively high-level processes, possibly involving parietal brain regions, suggesting that the visual transients associated with abrupt-onset stimuli are necessary to prompt visual awareness of the stimuli. This study is designed to evaluate the relative contribution of low- and high-level visual processes to the AIB phenomenon
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