title: Contributions of the Ventral Striatum to Conscious Perception: An Intracranial EEG Study of the Attentional Blink.
abstract: The brain is limited in its capacity to consciously process information, necessitating gating of information. While conscious perception is robustly associated with sustained, recurrent interactions between widespread cortical regions, subcortical regions, including the striatum, influence cortical activity. Here, we examined whether the ventral striatum, given its ability to modulate cortical information flow, contributes to conscious perception. Using intracranial EEG, we recorded ventral striatum activity while 7 patients performed an attentional blink task in which they had to detect two targets (T1 and T2) in a stream of distractors. Typically, when T2 follows T1 within 100-500 ms, it is often not perceived (i.e., the attentional blink). We found that conscious T2 perception was influenced and signaled by ventral striatal activity. Specifically, the failure to perceive T2 was foreshadowed by a T1-induced increase in α and low β oscillatory activity as early as 80 ms after T1, indicating that the attentional blink to T2 may be due to very early T1-driven attentional capture. Moreover, only consciously perceived targets were associated with an increase in θ activity between 200 and 400 ms. These unique findings shed new light on the mechanisms that give rise to the attentional blink by revealing that conscious target perception may be determined by T1 processing at a much earlier processing stage than traditionally believed. More generally, they indicate that ventral striatum activity may contribute to conscious perception, presumably by gating cortical information flow.
  
  
  
  What determines whether we become aware of a piece of information or not? Conscious access has been robustly associated with activity within a distributed network of cortical regions. Using intracranial electrophysiological recordings during an attentional blink task, we tested the idea that the ventral striatum, because of its ability to modulate cortical information flow, may contribute to conscious perception. We find that conscious perception is influenced and signaled by ventral striatal activity. Short-latency (80-140 ms) striatal responses to a first target determined conscious perception of a second target. Moreover, conscious perception of the second target was signaled by longer-latency (200-400 ms) striatal activity. These results suggest that the ventral striatum may be part of a subcortical network that influences conscious experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and h.a.slagter@uva.nl.|Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Heleen A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4180-1483
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Slagter
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5732-7555
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazaheri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Leon C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5814-0992
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Reteig
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ruud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smolders
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Martijn
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3679-284X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Figee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mariska
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mantione
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and.
authors.forename: P Richard
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Schuurman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Damiaan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3191-3844
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Denys
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054518:Attentional Blink / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology; D003243:Consciousness; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: attentional blink; consciousness; intracranial EEG; oscillations; perception; striatum