Ihre Suche
Ergebnisse 3 Einträge
-
Although our eyes receive incomplete and ambiguous information, our perceptual system is usually able to successfully construct a stable representation of the world. In the case of ambiguous figures, however, perception is unstable, spontaneously alternating between equally possible outcomes. The present study compared EEG responses to ambiguous figures and their unambiguous variants. We found that slight figural changes, which turn ambiguous figures into unambiguous ones, lead to a dramatic difference in an ERP ("event-related potential") component at around 400 ms. This result was obtained across two different categories of figures, namely the geometric Necker cube stimulus and the semantic Old/Young Woman face stimulus. Our results fit well into the Bayesian inference concept, which models the evaluation of a perceptual interpretation's reliability for subsequent action planning. This process seems to be unconscious and the late EEG signature may be a correlate of the outcome.
-
Ambiguous figures induce sudden transitions between rivaling percepts. We investigated electroencephalogram frequency modulations of accompanying change-related de- and rebinding processes. Presenting the stimuli discontinously, we synchronized perceptual reversals with stimulus onset, which served as a time reference for averaging. The resultant gain in temporal resolution revealed a sequence of time-frequency correlates of the reversal process. Most conspicuous was a transient right-hemispheric gamma modulation preceding endogenous reversals by at least 200 ms. No such modulation occurred with exogenously induced reversals of unambiguous stimulus variants. Post-onset components were delayed for ambiguous compared to unambiguous stimuli. The time course of oscillatory activity differed in several respects from predictions based on binding-related hypotheses. The gamma modulation preceding endogenous reversals may indicate an unstable brain state, ready to switch.
-
If we observe an ambiguous figure, our percept is unstable and alternates between the possible interpretations. Periodically interrupting the presentation sizably modulates the spontaneous reversal rate. We here studied event-related potential (ERP) correlates of the neural processes underlying these strong modulations. An ambiguous Necker stimulus was presented discontinuously with four randomly varying interstimulus intervals (ISI; 14, 43, 130, 390 ms) while participants indicated perceptual reversals. EEG was selectively averaged with respect to the participants' percept and ISI. ERP traces varied markedly between ISIs. A simple model explained a major part of this variation and showed that the ISI-dependent ERP modulation occurs after disambiguation has already taken place. We suggest that perceptual stability (or reversal) depends on a system state, slowly changing from one reversal to the next. ISI can shift this state on a scale between stability and instability.
Erkunden
Team
- Kornmeier (3)
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (3)
Thema
- Visual Perception/*physiology
- Adult (3)
- Algorithms (1)
- Bayes Theorem (1)
- Data Interpretation, Statistical (2)
- Discrimination, Psychological/*physiology (1)
- Electroencephalography (2)
- *Electroencephalography (1)
- Electrophysiology (1)
- Evoked Potentials/physiology (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual/*physiology (1)
- Female (2)
- Fourier Analysis (1)
- Functional Laterality/physiology (1)
- Humans (3)
- Male (2)
- Photic Stimulation (2)
- Photic Stimulation/methods (1)
- Reaction Time/physiology (1)
- Vision, Binocular/physiology (1)
- Young Adult (2)