Examining the neural correlates associated with the moment a stimulus enters or exits conscious awareness is one way to potentially identify the neural mechanisms that give rise to consciousness. In the present study, we examined neural activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings while participants observed a bilateral shape-from-motion (SFM) display. While the display is in motion, the observer perceives an object that is immediately segregated from a noisy background. After the motion stops, the observer’s experience of the object remains momentarily in awareness, before it eventually fades out of consciousness back into the noisy background. Consistent with subjective reports of perceptual experience, we observed a prominent sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), but only in conditions associated with sustained awareness. Importantly, the amplitude of the SPCN was correlated with individual differences in visual awareness, suggesting that this activity plays a significant role in the maintenance of objects in consciousness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31395 |
| Date | 19 December 2011 |
| Creators | Pun, Carson |
| Contributors | Ferber, Susanne |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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