title: Independence of visual awareness from attention at early processing stages.
abstract: According to a widely accepted idea, only the results of attentional selection reach visual awareness. A competing model postulates that awareness is independent of attentional selection: contents of subjective visual experience may also exist without the contribution of attention. We tested these competing models by tracking the independent contributions of selective attention and awareness to electrophysiological brain responses. Our results showed that the earliest effects of visual awareness emerged earlier than the effects of attention and regardless of the presence or absence of attention. The early effects of attention were elicited regardless of the presence or absence of awareness. The results suggest that visual awareness and selective attention are initially independent of each other.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. mika.koivisto@utu.fi
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koivisto
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Revonsuo
authors.forename: Niina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Salminen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*