A late-stage neural signature of visual awareness in the no-report inattentional blindness paradigm.

A late bilateral occipital positivity in the brain's electrical activity appears to be a potential marker of conscious perception, but its reliability depends on stimulus complexity. Using a no-report inattentional blindness paradigm across three experiments, high-level, real-life object drawings (car and bell) consistently evoked this late ERP component following conscious perception, whereas low-level geometric drawings (square) did so less reliably. The findings suggest that the neural dynamics of consciousness unfold as a multistage process, with early perceptual awareness followed by later, content-specific processing, and that stimulus complexity modulates the elicitation of this late-stage neural activity.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The search for the neural correlates of consciousness has long revolved around a theoretical debate between early posterior sensory processing and late anterior cognitive involvement. Although the late event-related potential (ERP)-P3b component-is increasingly interpreted as reflecting postperceptual, report-related processes rather than consciousness itself, it remains unclear whether other late-stage neural activity contributes to conscious perception. Recent findings derived from no-report paradigms suggest a late ERP candidate of it; however, its reliability and functional significance-especially regarding stimulus complexity-remain to be elucidated. To address these questions, we employed a no-report inattentional blindness paradigm across three ERP experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 used high-level, real-life object drawings (car and bell) to reliably evoke and characterize the potential late ERP component. Experiment 3 directly compared neural responses to these complex stimuli with those elicited by low-level geometric drawing (square) to examine the potential influence of stimulus complexity. Results consistently revealed a late bilateral occipital positivity following conscious perception of task-irrelevant, high-level objects, whereas this component was less reliable for simple geometric drawings. These findings put forward the late bilateral occipital positivity as a potential late-stage electrophysiological marker of the neural correlate of consciousness whose elicitation appears to be modulated by stimulus complexity, highlighting that the neural dynamics of consciousness may unfold as a multistage process, with early perceptual awareness being followed by later, content-specific processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).