Temporal integration by multi-level regularities fosters the emergence of dynamic conscious experience.
Ruichen Hu, Shuo Li, Peijun Yuan, Ying Wang, Yi Jiang
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences March 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15099 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractStructured visual streams containing regularities—whether perceptual (shape, motion) or semantic (idioms)—dominate over unstructured streams in the competition for visual awareness during binocular rivalry. Perceptual- and semantic-level regularities produce rivalry advantages that dissociate: perceptual regularities operate via nonconscious temporal integration and are vulnerable to disruptions of the spatiotemporal integration window, whereas semantic regularities operate via conscious temporal integration and are not. These findings indicate that structure-guided information integration across time contributes to visual awareness through at least two distinct mechanisms, supporting theories that link integration to conscious experience.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Binocular rivalry Information integration Regularity Temporal structure Visual consciousness |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key finding | Structured visual streams with perceptual or semantic regularities dominate over unstructured streams in binocular rivalry, but the underlying mechanisms differ: perceptual regularities rely on nonconscious temporal integration vulnerable to spatiotemporal disruption, while semantic regularities rely on conscious temporal integration that is not. |
Abstract
The relationship between integration and awareness is central to contemporary theories and research on consciousness. Here, we investigated whether and how information integration over time, by incorporating the underlying regularities, contributes to our awareness of the dynamic world. Using binocular rivalry, we demonstrated that structured visual streams, constituted by shape, motion, or idiom sequences containing perceptual- or semantic-level regularities, predominated over their nonstructured but otherwise matched counterparts in the competition for visual awareness. Despite the apparent resemblance, a substantial dissociation of the observed rivalry advantages emerged between perceptual- and semantic-level regularities. These effects stem from nonconscious and conscious temporal integration processes, respectively, with the former but not the latter being vulnerable to perturbations in the spatiotemporal integration window. These findings corroborate the essential role of structure-guided information integration in visual awareness and highlight a multi-level mechanism where temporal integration by perceptually and semantically defined regularities fosters the emergence of continuous conscious experience.