The influence of spatial and temporal attention on visual awareness-a behavioral and ERP study.
Cereb Cortex
; 34(6)2024 Jun 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38850216
ABSTRACT
Whether attention is a prerequisite of perceptual awareness or an independent and dissociable process remains a matter of debate. Importantly, understanding the relation between attention and awareness is probably not possible without taking into account the fact that both are heterogeneous and multifaceted mechanisms. Therefore, the present study tested the impact on visual awareness of two attentional mechanisms proposed by the Posner model temporal alerting and spatio-temporal orienting. Specifically, we evaluated the effects of attention on the perceptual level, by measuring objective and subjective awareness of a threshold-level stimulus; and on the neural level, by investigating how attention affects two postulated event-related potential correlates of awareness. We found that alerting and orienting mechanisms additively facilitate perceptual consciousness, with activation of the latter resulting in the most vivid awareness. Furthermore, we found that late positivity is unlikely to constitute a neural correlate of consciousness as its amplitude was modulated by both attentional mechanisms, but early visual awareness negativity was independent of the alerting and orienting mechanisms. In conclusion, our study reveals a nuanced relationship between attention and awareness; moreover, by investigating the effect of the alerting mechanism, this study provides insights into the role of temporal attention in perceptual consciousness.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Attention
/
Awareness
/
Visual Perception
/
Electroencephalography
/
Evoked Potentials
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Cereb Cortex
Journal subject:
CEREBRO
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Poland