Abstract
Recently, using Motion Induced-Blindness (MIB), we have shown that two visual stimuli, one consciously experienced and one not, interact as a function of feature and object similarity, pointing to preserved visual representations of objects, and their constitutive features, in the absence of perceptual awareness. Here we investigated whether these representations preserve the memory of the previously perceived stimulus by testing interactions with the unperceived stimulus modified while it is invisible. Observers performed the MIB task, wherein an object ‘Target’ (a plaid object) was morphed into one of its features (an oriented Gabor patch) once its disappearance was reported. Reappearances of the morphed target were induced by a visible ‘Cue’ (object or feature), with reappearance frequency used to quantify the interaction between the visible cue and the invisible target. Reappearance rates were highest when the morphed target and the cue shared the same orientations, with the plaid-cue showing reappearance rates equal to that of the orthogonal-cue. Our findings indicate that target-cue interactions do not depend on memory-stored representations, but rather, on the current state of the consciously unavailable target. We suggest that visual objects can be constructed and deconstructed in the absence of conscious perception, but only objects are consciously available.
Highlights
Salient visual stimuli can disappear and reappear from conscious awareness when surrounded by a high-contrast moving background, a phenomenon known as Motion-Induced Blindness1 (MIB; www.scholarpedia.org/article/ Motion_induced_blindness)
In the current work we used the Motion Induced-Blindness (MIB) paradigm to test the reappearance of perceptually invisible stimuli upon the presentation of a visible cue10
We suggested that selective interactions between the modified target representation and the cue imply that visual representations are continuously processed and can be updated during perceptual suppression
Summary
Salient visual stimuli can disappear and reappear from conscious awareness when surrounded by a high-contrast moving background, a phenomenon known as Motion-Induced Blindness (MIB; www.scholarpedia.org/article/ Motion_induced_blindness). The all-or-none nature of MIB disappearances serves as a tool to test visual processing at times of perceptual suppression. Our previous findings indicate similarity-based interactions between the perceived and the unperceived ones, pointing to object-based representation in the absence of awareness. It is not yet clear whether the www.nature.com/scientificreports/. It is possible that the interactions are affected by the available memory of the target, and preserve target-related representations available before suppression To address this issue, we tested the interactions between a visible cue and an invisible target modified during its disappearance, and investigated whether the interactions depend on the actual representation of the invisible target during the time of suppression. It would imply that interactions are dynamic and sensitive to real-time changes in the visual representations, even in the absence of perceptual feedback
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