title: Greater disruption due to failure of inhibitory control on an ambiguous distractor.
abstract: Considerable evidence indicates that a stimulus that is subthreshold, and thus consciously invisible, influences brain activity and behavioral performance. However, it is not clear how subthreshold stimuli are processed in the brain. We found that a task-irrelevant subthreshold coherent motion led to a stronger disturbance in task performance than did suprathreshold motion. With the subthreshold motion, activity in the visual cortex measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging was higher, but activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex was lower, than with suprathreshold motion. These results suggest that subthreshold irrelevant signals are not subject to effective inhibitory control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsushima
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009039:Motion Perception; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception