State-Dependent Visual Processing
Open Access
- 1 January 2011
- journal article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Psychology
- Vol. 2, 370
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00370
Abstract
The temporal dynamics and anatomical correlates underlying human visual cognition are traditionally assessed as a function of stimulus properties and task demands. Any non-stimulus related activity is commonly dismissed as noise and eliminated to extract an evoked signal that is only a small fraction of the magnitude of the measured signal. We review studies that challenge this view by showing that non-stimulus related activity is not mere noise but that it has a well-structured organization which can largely determine the processing of upcoming stimuli. We review recent evidence from human electrophysiology that shows how different aspects of pre-stimulus activity such as pre-stimulus EEG frequency power and phase and pre-stimulus EEG microstates can determine qualitative and quantitative properties of both lower and higher-level visual processing. These studies show that low-level sensory processes depend on the momentary excitability of sensory cortices whereas perceptual processes leading to stimulus awareness depend on momentary pre-stimulus activity in higher-level non-visual brain areas. Also speed and accuracy of stimulus identification have likewise been shown to be modulated by pre-stimulus brain states.Keywords
This publication has 56 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Broadband-Transient Induced Gamma-Band Response in Scalp EEG Reflects the Execution of SaccadesBrain Topography, 2009
- Discontinuous presentation of ambiguous figures: How interstimulus‐interval durations affect reversal dynamics and ERPsPsychophysiology, 2007
- Top-down facilitation of visual recognitionProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Alpha rhythm of the EEG modulates visual detection performance in humansCognitive Brain Research, 2004
- Chronic schizophrenics with positive symptomatology have shortened EEG microstate durationsClinical Neurophysiology, 2003
- Integrated model of visual processingBrain Research Reviews, 2001
- Neuroimaging at 1.5 T and 3.0 T: Comparison of oxygenation‐sensitive magnetic resonance imagingMagnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2001
- Modulation of Oscillatory Neuronal Synchronization by Selective Visual AttentionScience, 2001
- A deviant EEG brain microstate in acute, neuroleptic-naive schizophrenics at restArchiv Fur Psychiatrie Und Nervenkrankheiten, 1999
- Oscillatory gamma activity in humans and its role in object representationTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 1999