Investigating the influence of masker and target properties on the dynamics of perceptual awareness under informational masking.

Informational masking has been investigated using the detection of an auditory target embedded in a random multi-tone masker. The build-up of the target percept is influenced by the masker and target properties. Most studies dealing with discrimination performance neglect the dynamics of perceptual awareness. This study aims at investigating the dynamics of perceptual awareness using multi-level survival models in an informational masking paradigm by manipulating masker uncertainty, masker-target similarity and target repetition rate. Consistent with previous studies, it shows that high target repetition rates, low masker-target similarity and low masker uncertainty facilitate target detection. In the context of evidence accumulation models, these results can be interpreted by changes in the accumulation parameters. The probabilistic description of perceptual awareness provides a benchmark for the choice of target and masker parameters in order to examine the underlying cognitive and neural dynamics of perceptual awareness.

Information-Theoretic Approaches in EEG Correlates of Auditory Perceptual Awareness under Informational Masking.

In informational masking paradigms, the successful segregation between the target and masker creates auditory perceptual awareness. The dynamics of the build-up of auditory perception is based on a set of interactions between bottom-up and top-down processes that generate neuronal modifications within the brain network activity. These neural changes are studied here using event-related potentials (ERPs), entropy, and integrated information, leading to several measures applied to electroencephalogram signals. The main findings show that the auditory perceptual awareness stimulated functional activation in the fronto-temporo-parietal brain network through (i) negative temporal and positive centro-parietal ERP components; (ii) an enhanced processing of multi-information in the temporal cortex; and (iii) an increase in informational content in the fronto-central cortex. These different results provide information-based experimental evidence about the functional activation of the fronto-temporo-parietal brain network during auditory perceptual awareness.