Object-based effects in visual change detection

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Object-based effects in visual change detection Dagmar Mueller1*, I Winkler2, 3 and E. Schröger1 1 Institut für Psychologie I, Universität Leipzig , Germany 2 Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary 3 Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary There is an ongoing debate whether or not visual object representations can be formed outside the focus of voluntary attention. Implicit behavioral measures seem to support theories of pre-attentive object formation. However, with these implicit measures the supposedly task-irrelevant elements forming the objects were still usually related to the task-relevant stimuli in some way. We developed a paradigm based on the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) ERP component that allows to test visual grouping when neither the objects nor their constituents are related to the participant’s task. Our stimuli consisted of four pairs of colored discs which were evenly distributed around the fixation point. Pairs were formed by use of the gestalt principle of common region and thus, served as objects. Each display contained 6 blue-colored discs and 2 red-colored discs with the latter ones always presented at neighboring positions. In separate conditions, the two red-colored discs either usually (p=0.9) belonged to the same object (standard: red-in-same-object) or to two different objects (standard: red-in-different-objects). Occasionally (p=0.1), the assignment of the two red-colored discs to objects was exchanged. That is, deviances were exclusively defined on the basis of object-irregularities, since the features and their distribution were identical between standard and deviant displays. Each test-display was shown for 120 ms and was followed by an inter stimulus interval of 300 ms. Participants were instructed to detect slight changes of the continuously presented fixation cross. Thus, the display items included in the object stimuli were fully task irrelevant. We found no differences between the ERPs elicited by the physically identical deviant and standard red-in-different objects displays. However, comparison of the ERPs elicited by deviant and standard red-in-same object displays yielded an occipitally maximal negative deflection peaking in the 200-260 ms latency range, which was identified as vMMN. The elicitation of vMMN shows that visual object formation can precede pre-attentive deviance-detection. Therefore, the results support theories of pre attentive visual object formation. The asymmetry between the change from red in-different objects to red in same object (eliciting vMMN) and the reversed configuration (resulting in no vMMN elicitation) parallels similar MMN findings in the auditory modality: When the deviant was a part of the standard no or only a small MMN was elicited. In our design, red-in-different-objects deviants may be seen as being part of the red-in-same-object standards and thus, elicit no vMMN. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Mueller D, Winkler I and Schröger E (2009). Object-based effects in visual change detection. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.147 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Mar 2009; Published Online: 26 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Dagmar Mueller, Institut für Psychologie I, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, dagmar_mueller@uni-leipzig.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Dagmar Mueller I Winkler E. Schröger Google Dagmar Mueller I Winkler E. Schröger Google Scholar Dagmar Mueller I Winkler E. Schröger PubMed Dagmar Mueller I Winkler E. Schröger Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.