The scope and limits of top-down attention in unconscious visual processing.

@article{citeulike:977618, abstract = {Attentional selection plays a critical role in conscious perception. When attention is diverted, even salient stimuli fail to reach visual awareness . Attention can be voluntarily directed to a spatial location or a visual feature for facilitating the processing of information relevant to current goals. In everyday situations, attention and awareness are tightly coupled. This has led some to suggest that attention and awareness might be based on a common neural foundation , whereas others argue that they are mediated by distinct mechanisms . A body of evidence shows that visual stimuli can be processed at multiple stages of the visual-processing streams without evoking visual awareness . To illuminate the relationship between visual attention and conscious perception, we investigated whether top-down attention can target and modulate the neural representations of unconsciously processed visual stimuli. Our experiments show that spatial attention can target only consciously perceived stimuli, whereas feature-based attention can modulate the processing of invisible stimuli. The attentional modulation of unconscious signals implies that attention and awareness can be dissociated, challenging a simplistic view of the boundary between conscious and unconscious visual processing.}, address = {Universiteit Utrecht, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology, Heidelberglaan 2 NL, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands; Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 114-96, Pasadena, California 91125.}, author = {Kanai, R. and Tsuchiya, N. and Verstraten, F. A. }, citeulike-article-id = {977618}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.001}, issn = {0960-9822}, journal = {Curr Biol}, month = {December}, number = {23}, pages = {2332--2336}, posted-at = {2006-12-07 06:07:25}, priority = {2}, title = {The scope and limits of top-down attention in unconscious visual processing.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.001}, volume = {16}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:977618 L3 - citeulike-article-id:977618 TI - The scope and limits of top-down attention in unconscious visual processing. JF - Curr Biol VL - 16 IS - 23 SP - 2332 EP - 2336 AD - Universiteit Utrecht, Helmholtz Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology, Heidelberglaan 2 NL, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands; Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Mail Code 114-96, Pasadena, California 91125. SN - 0960-9822 N2 - Attentional selection plays a critical role in conscious perception. When attention is diverted, even salient stimuli fail to reach visual awareness . Attention can be voluntarily directed to a spatial location or a visual feature for facilitating the processing of information relevant to current goals. In everyday situations, attention and awareness are tightly coupled. This has led some to suggest that attention and awareness might be based on a common neural foundation , whereas others argue that they are mediated by distinct mechanisms . A body of evidence shows that visual stimuli can be processed at multiple stages of the visual-processing streams without evoking visual awareness . To illuminate the relationship between visual attention and conscious perception, we investigated whether top-down attention can target and modulate the neural representations of unconsciously processed visual stimuli. Our experiments show that spatial attention can target only consciously perceived stimuli, whereas feature-based attention can modulate the processing of invisible stimuli. The attentional modulation of unconscious signals implies that attention and awareness can be dissociated, challenging a simplistic view of the boundary between conscious and unconscious visual processing. AU - Kanai, R AU - Tsuchiya, N AU - Verstraten, FA PY - 2006/12/05/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.10.001 ER -