Event-related potentials to overlapping shapes: effects of saliency and interference.
Visual perception is often challenged by various difficulties that act concomitantly and whose respective impacts may therefore be hard to distinguish. We used event-related potentials to dissociate the impact of target saliency, generated by occlusion, from that of interference produced by incongruent nontargets. In one block, the target (a square) partially occluded another square tilted by 45 degrees. This nontarget square interfered only to a small extent with target perception. In another block, the target was the occluded stimulus, and interference from the nontarget was substantial. Blocks including two kinds of overlapping shapes (a cross and a square) were added to control for the interference effect. Block comparisons revealed that occlusion modulated an occipital N250 and reaction times. In contrast, interference modulated a parietal N380 but not reaction times.
Brodeur
Mathieu B
MB
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. mathieu.brodeur@gmail.com
Lepore
Franco
F
Bacon
Benoit A
BA
Renoult
Louis
L
Debruille
J Bruno
JB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D055815:Young Adult