The levels of perceptual processing and the neural correlates of increasing subjective visibility

• Published in: Consciousness and cognition Vol. 55; pp. 106 - 125
• Main Authors: Binder, Marek, Gociewicz, Krzysztof, Windey, Bert, Koculak, Marcin, Finc, Karolina, Nikadon, Jan, Derda, Monika, Cleeremans, Axel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.10.2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adult; Awareness; Awareness - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cognition & reasoning; Consciousness; Consciousness - physiology; Dichotomous; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Graded; Humans; Information processing; Levels of processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Neural correlates of consciousness; Perception; Perceptions; Perceptual Masking - physiology; Studies; Vision; Visual masking; Visual Perception - physiology; Visualization; Young Adult; Neural correlates of consciousness; Graded; Consciousness; Dichotomous; Awareness; Vision; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Visual masking; Levels of processing
• ISSN: 1053-8100; 1090-2376
• DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.010

•fMRI was used to explore the effect of the levels of processing on neural correlates of visibility.•Activation of fronto-parietal networks for visible stimuli is independent of the level-of-processing of the stimuli.•Effects of the level of processing were observed locally in visual regions. According to the levels-of-processing hypothesis, transitions from unconscious to conscious perception may depend on stimulus processing level, with more gradual changes for low-level stimuli and more dichotomous changes for high-level stimuli. In an event-related fMRI study we explored this hypothesis using a visual backward masking procedure. Task requirements manipulated level of processing. Participants reported the magnitude of the target digit in the high-level task, its color in the low-level task, and rated subjective visibility of stimuli using the Perceptual Awareness Scale. Intermediate stimulus visibility was reported more frequently in the low-level task, confirming prior behavioral results. Visible targets recruited insulo-fronto-parietal regions in both tasks. Task effects were observed in visual areas, with higher activity in the low-level task across all visibility levels. Thus, the influence of level of processing on conscious perception may be mediated by attentional modulation of activity in regions representing features of consciously experienced stimuli.