Object relations are processed with, but not without, awareness.
Shaked Palgi, Tamara Bester-Arest, Nathan Faivre, Liad Mudrik
Neuroscience of consciousness January 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niaf010 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractUnconscious mental processing may not extend to integrating relationships between objects. In five experiments, participants viewed pairs of objects that were either related (e.g., a lock and key) or unrelated, presented either visibly or invisibly through masking. When pairs were visible, behavioral priming and a larger N400 brain response occurred for unrelated versus related pairs, indicating relational processing. When pairs were invisible—verified by subjective and objective awareness measures—no differences in N400 amplitude were found, and decoding of pair relations from brain activity was no better than chance. The results suggest that consciousness is needed for integrating relationships beyond single objects, supporting theories that emphasize consciousness's role in relational integration.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Behavioral and electrophysiological experiments Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Participants |
| Keywords | Object relations Unconscious processing Consciousness/awareness/perception Neuroscience/Brain-Activity/EEG/N400 Object-recognition/visual-processing/object-relations |
| Key finding | No convincing evidence was found for unconscious processing of relations between associatively related objects, suggesting consciousness may be necessary for relational integration beyond the single object level. |
Abstract
The scope of unconscious integration is widely debated. Here, we examined this question, focusing specifically on deciphering the relations between two associatively related objects, in a set of five behavioral and electrophysiological experiments. Participants were presented with masked pairs of related and unrelated objects and were asked to judge their relatedness. When the masked pairs were visible, we found both a behavioral priming effect and a difference in the magnitude of the electrophysiological N400 component for unrelated compared with related pairs. In sharp contrast, when the pairs were invisible (validated using both subjective and objective awareness measures), no convincing evidence was found for relatedness processing: with electroencephalography, no difference in N400 amplitude nor above-chance decoding of pair relations was found in two separate experiments. Based on these results, we conclude that the data do not support unconscious relatedness processing, suggesting that consciousness might have a prominent role in enabling relational integration beyond the single object level, which is in line with leading theories of consciousness.