IMPLICIT PERCEPTION (253303)

  https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/253303

  FP7 (2007-2013)

  Finding the Neural Correlates of Implicit Object Perception

  Marie Curie Action: "International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development" (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF)

  pattern recognition

  2010-09-21 Start Date (YY-MM-DD)

  2013-12-19 End Date (YY-MM-DD)

  € 250,539 Total Cost

  Description

Perceiving a familiar object normally involves feature-integration, recognition and awareness. However, findings show that objects can be integrated and recognized without awareness. This implicit object perception phenomenon has raised much interest but the precise mechanisms by which the brain can process objects outside awareness remain unclear. In particular, the distinction between brain activities responsible for object perception and their independence from (or association with) awareness remain a matter of controversy. I propose two interlinked projects using MEG and fMRI that are designed to address such questions by dissociating object perception (i.e. integration and recognition) and object-awareness processes while measuring brain activity. Object recognition will be manipulated by contrasting familiar and unfamiliar letters. Feature integration will be manipulated using crowding which occurs when closely-spaced flankers hinder the recognition of a peripherally viewed target object, without disrupting its local features. Visual awareness will be manipulated using continuous flash suppression, which suppresses visual awareness of a stimulus presented to one eye by the presentation of noise to the other eye. fMRI responses and MEG gamma-band activity will be measured to study the processes related to implicit object perception, using state-of-the-art analysis procedures including retinotopic mapping, inter-area correlations and multivariate pattern recognition. The study is designed to identify brain activities that are affected only by the integration or recognition of objects and are independent of awareness. In addition, the study will contribute an understanding of the neural correlates of consciousness by identifying activities that are related to awareness but independent from object perception. An interaction between the examined mechanisms may demonstrate that object perception processes are working differently under aware and unaware contexts.

  Complicit Organisations

1 Israeli organisation participates in IMPLICIT PERCEPTION.