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Ergebnisse 4 Einträge
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The Necker-Zeno model of bistable perception provides a formal relation between the average duration of meta-stable percepts (dwell times T) of ambiguous figures and two other basic time scales (t(0), ΔT) underlying cognitive processing. The model predicts that dwell times T covary with t(0), ΔT or both. We tested this prediction by exploiting that observers, in particular experienced meditators, can volitionally control dwell times T. Meditators and non-meditators observed bistable Necker cubes either passively or tried to hold their current percept. The latencies of a centro-parietal event-related potential (CPP) were recorded as a physiological correlate of t(0). Dwell times T and the CPP latencies, correlated with t(0), differed between conditions and observer groups, while ΔT remained constant in the range predicted by the model. The covariation of CPP latencies and dwell times, as well as their quadratic functional dependence extends previous psychophysical confirmation of the Necker-Zeno model to psychophysiological measures.
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Environmental information available to our senses is incomplete and to varying degrees ambiguous. It has to be disambiguated in order to construct stable and reliable percepts. Ambiguous figures are artificial examples where perception is maximally unstable and alternates between possible interpretations. Tiny low-level changes can disambiguate an ambiguous figure and thus stabilize percepts. The present study compares ERPs evoked by ambiguous stimuli and disambiguated stimulus variants across three visual categories: geometry (Necker cube), motion (stroboscopic alternative motion stimulus, SAM) and semantics (Boring's old/young woman). We found that (a) disambiguated stimulus variants cause stable percepts and evoke two huge positive ERP excursions (Cohen's effect sizes 1-2), (b) the amplitudes of these ERP effects are inversely related to the degree of stimulus ambiguity, and (c) this pattern of results is consistent across all three tested visual categories. This generality across visual categories points to mechanisms at a very abstract (cognitive) level of processing. We discuss our results in the context of a high-level Bayesian inference unit that evaluates the reliability of perceptual processing results, given a priori incomplete, ambiguous sensory information. The ERP components may reflect the outcome of this reliability estimation.
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How can our percept spontaneously change while the observed object stays unchanged? This happens with ambiguous figures, like the Necker cube. Explanations favor either bottom-up factors in early visual processing, or top-down factors near awareness. The EEG has a high temporal resolution, so event related potentials (ERPs) may help to throw light on these alternative explanations. However, the precise point in time of neural correlates of perceptual reversal is difficult to estimate. We developed a paradigm that overcomes this problem and found an early (120 ms) occipital ERP signal correlated with endogenous perceptual reversal. Parallels of ambiguous-figure-reversal to binocular-rivalry-reversals are explored.
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Normally we experience the visual world as stable. Ambiguous figures provide a fascinating exception: On prolonged inspection, the "Necker cube" undergoes a sudden, unavoidable reversal of its perceived front-back orientation. What happens in the brain when spontaneously switching between these equally likely interpretations? Does neural processing differ between an endogenously perceived reversal of a physically unchanged ambiguous stimulus and an exogenously caused reversal of an unambiguous stimulus? A refined EEG paradigm to measure such endogenous events uncovered an early electrophysiological correlate of this spontaneous reversal, a negativity beginning at 160 ms. Comparing across nine electrode locations suggests that this component originates in early visual areas. An EEG component of similar shape and scalp distribution, but 50 ms earlier, was evoked by an external reversal of unambiguous figures. Perceptual disambiguation seems to be accomplished by the same structures that represent objects per se, and to occur early in the visual stream. This suggests that low-level mechanisms play a crucial role in resolving perceptual ambiguity.
Erkunden
Team
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (4)
Thema
- Pattern Recognition, Visual/*physiology
- Adult (4)
- Ambiguous figures (1)
- Ambiguous figures, Necker cube, Multistable perception, EEG, ERPs, Bayesian inference (1)
- Bistable perception (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- Cerebral Cortex/*physiology (2)
- Cognitive time scales (1)
- Contingent Negative Variation/*physiology (1)
- Depth Perception/*physiology (2)
- Discrimination Learning/physiology (1)
- EEG (1)
- Electroencephalography (3)
- *Electroencephalography (1)
- Event-related potentials (1)
- Event-Related Potentials, P300/physiology (1)
- Evoked Potentials (1)
- Evoked Potentials/*physiology (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual (1)
- Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology (2)
- Female (3)
- Humans (4)
- Judgment/*physiology (1)
- Male (3)
- *Meditation (1)
- Meditation (1)
- Middle Aged (1)
- *Models, Theoretical (1)
- Necker cube (1)
- Necker-Zeno model (1)
- Optical Illusions/physiology (1)
- Optical Illusions/*physiology (2)
- Orientation/*physiology (1)
- Perceptual Closure/*physiology (1)
- Photic Stimulation (1)
- Photic Stimulation/methods (1)
- Psychomotor Performance/*physiology (1)
- Psychophysics (1)
- Quantum cognition (1)
- Reversal Learning/physiology (1)
- Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted (1)
- Space Perception/*physiology (1)
- Visual Cortex/physiology (1)
- Young Adult (1)