Early electrophysiological markers of visual awareness in the human brain

Abstract

The present study investigated neuronal correlates of stimulus processing leading to conscious perception of a task irrelevant global structure in a visual display. To study the underlying neuronal processes, participants were presented different types of dot patterns (Glass patterns) either forming a global structure or forming no global structure while EEG was recorded. Participants were naive about the pattern types and performed a demanding colour discrimination task. Following the experiment, the degree to which participants acquired awareness of the global visual structure was assessed. Early gamma-frequency band responses (gamma, 25-100 Hz) over occipital, parietal, and central areas were enhanced to circular Glass patterns as compared to random dot patterns at 90 ms post-stimulus. This effect was observed exclusively in participants who were subjectively aware of the global pattern structure. In this group of observers, the pattern effect built up gradually during the course of the experiment. The significance of enhanced early gamma responses to global patterns for the production of awareness of the pattern might lie in the increased impact of information conveyed by well synchronised neuronal assemblies to upstream cortical areas.