title: Fusion of competing features is not serial.
abstract: How features of an object are bound into a unique percept is one of the puzzling problems in the cognitive and neuro-sciences. In order to investigate the spatio-temporal mechanisms of feature binding, we serially present two verniers with opposite offset directions for very short durations. Only one vernier is perceived with its offset dominated by the vernier presented second. This dominance reverses if the two verniers are followed by masking gratings, i.e. the first presented vernier dominates performance. Therefore, feature fusion can neither be explained completely by spatially local mechanisms nor by the temporal order of appearance of elements.
authors.affiliation: Computation and Neural Systems Program, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA. michael.herzog@uni-bremen.de
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.forename: Landi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parish
authors.forename: Christof
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fahle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*