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Timing of the brain events underlying access to consciousness during the attentional blink

Nature Neuroscience volume 8, pages 1391–1400 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

In the phenomenon of attentional blink, identical visual stimuli are sometimes fully perceived and sometimes not detected at all. This phenomenon thus provides an optimal situation to study the fate of stimuli not consciously perceived and the differences between conscious and nonconscious processing. We correlated behavioral visibility ratings and recordings of event-related potentials to study the temporal dynamics of access to consciousness. Intact early potentials (P1 and N1) were evoked by unseen words, suggesting that these brain events are not the primary correlates of conscious perception. However, we observed a rapid divergence around 270 ms, after which several brain events were evoked solely by seen words. Thus, we suggest that the transition toward access to consciousness relates to the optional triggering of a late wave of activation that spreads through a distributed network of cortical association areas.

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Figure 1: Experimental protocol and behavioral results recorded during the ERP session.
Figure 2: Preservation of initial visual processing steps during the attentional blink.
Figure 3: First large divergences between conscious and nonconscious processing during the attentional blink.
Figure 4: Reduced amplitude of a late central negativity on nonconscious trials during the attentional blink.
Figure 5: Late positive complex exclusively evoked by seen T2s during the attentional blink.
Figure 6: Temporal dynamics of the cortical activity evoked by seen and unseen T2s.
Figure 7: Neural events correlating with the bimodal conscious report.
Figure 8: Causes of the attentional blink.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Michel for helping us in the analysis of topographical differences, M. Sigman for helping us generate the movie and J.-P. Changeux, P. Coiron, V. Izard and M. Sigman for useful comments. We are also grateful to R.M Leahy, J.C. Mosher, F. Darvas and D. Pantazis from the BrainStorm and BrainSuite projects. This study was supported by INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale) and a centennial fellowship from the McDonnell Foundation to S.D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 562, Cognitive Neuroimaging, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 4, place du Général Leclerc, Orsay, 91401, Cedex, France

    Claire Sergent & Stanislas Dehaene

  2. Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Imaging Laboratory, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UPR 640-LENA, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, 47, boulevard de l'Hôpital, Paris, 75651, Cedex 13, France

    Sylvain Baillet

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  1. Claire Sergent
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Correspondence to Claire Sergent.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Unsubtracted waveforms. (PDF 91 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Statistical results of the seen versus unseen comparison. (PDF 66 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Complete sequence of events evoked by seen and unseen T2s. (AVI 1940 kb)

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Sergent, C., Baillet, S. & Dehaene, S. Timing of the brain events underlying access to consciousness during the attentional blink. Nat Neurosci 8, 1391–1400 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1549

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