Attending to the Unseen: The Effects of Spatial Attention on Neural Responses to Visible and Invisible Stimuli
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1
The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Cognitive Neuroscience, Australia
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2
The University of Queensland, Psychology, Australia
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3
The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia
Recent theories have suggested that attention and conscious awareness are actually distinct phenomena and can dissociate at the neural level. Studies indicating that voluntary spatial attention can modulate the processing of subjectively invisible stimuli have, however, typically suffered from various methodological weaknesses. I will present a new paradigm that aims to overcome such limitations. In the first of two studies, participants (N = 25) attended covertly to one of two flickering image streams on either side of fixation, and reported which of two consecutive intervals contained a target embedded in dynamic noise. Coherence of the signal was manipulated to be subjectively visible or invisible. Scalprecorded electroencephalography (EEG) revealed steady-state visual-evoked potentials (SSVEPs) at the frequencies of visible and invisible signal stimulation, the latter of which is the first known such case. Attentional enhancement of neural responses to noise stimuli indicated that the manipulation of attention was successful, and behavioural data confirmed that the manipulation of signal awareness was successful. Contrary to expectations, however, spatial attention did not modulate neural responses to the visible or invisible signal. Exploratory time-frequency analyses revealed an unexpected pattern of neural activation and indicated a possible confound. Accordingly, I will also present pilot data (N = 6) from an ongoing study that attempts to ameliorate the first. Although preliminary, this data trends toward attentional enhancement of neural responses to both visible and invisible stimuli, and provides tentative support for the notion that attention and conscious awareness are dissociable phenomena.
Keywords:
Awareness,
Visual Cortex,
spatial attention,
Signal detection,
SSVEP,
visual consciousness,
visibility
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Smout
C and
Mattingley
J
(2015). Attending to the Unseen: The Effects of Spatial Attention on Neural Responses to Visible and Invisible Stimuli.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00384
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
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Correspondence:
Mr. Cooper Smout, The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Cognitive Neuroscience, Brisbane, Australia, smoutie@hotmail.com