Nature Neuroscience 9, 873 - 874 (2006)
Published online: 11 June 2006; | doi:10.1038/nn1723
Contingent aftereffects distinguish conscious and preconscious color processingEdward Vul1, 2
& Donald I A MacLeod11
Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92092-0109, USA. 2
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Edward Vul evul@mit.edu The brain can process input without perception, but what distinguishes conscious from preconscious processing? Using aftereffects induced by quickly alternating images, we show that cortical mechanisms track color much faster than perception, responding well to color alternations that are too rapid to be perceptible. The more restricted frequency response of the conscious perception of color suggests that extra integrative steps give conscious color perception a time course substantially slower than that of early cortical mechanisms.
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