Frontal engagement in perceptual integration under low subjective visibility.
NeuroImage January 1, 2025 Jisub Bae, Koeun Jung, Oliver James et al. 1 citation
Perceptual integration of an illusory triangle from pacman-shaped inducers depends on how consciously the inducers are perceived. Using electroencephalography and multivariate pattern analysis, the authors found that posterior and central brain areas initially used a dynamic neural code and later switched to a stable one. The transition to stable coding occurred later and eventually disappeared as conscious access decreased. Anterior areas primarily used stable neural coding, which weakened with decreasing conscious access but increased at below-median visibility and persisted even when stimulus awareness was minimal. These results show distinct spatiotemporal neural dynamics for perceptual integration based on conscious access, with anterior areas uniquely processing integrated shape information especially under low subjective visibility.