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Time-locked perceptual fading induced by visual transients

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posted on 2023-06-15, 14:00 authored by Ryota Kanai, Yukiyasu Kamitani
After prolonged fixation, a stationary object placed in the peripheral visual field fades and disappears from our visual awareness, especially at low luminance contrast (the Troxler effect). Here, we report that similar fading can be triggered by visual transients, such as additional visual stimuli flashed near the object, apparent motion, or a brief removal of the object itself (blinking). The fading occurs even without prolonged adaptation and is time-locked to the presentation of the visual transients. Experiments show that the effect of a flashed object decreased monotonically as a function of the distance from the target object. Consistent with this result, when apparent motion, consisting of a sequence of flashes was presented between stationary disks, these target disks perceptually disappeared as if erased by the moving object. Blinking the target disk, instead of flashing an additional visual object, turned out to be sufficient to induce the fading. The effect of blinking peaked around a blink duration of 80 msec. Our findings reveal a unique mechanism that controls the visibility of visual objects in a spatially selective and time-locked manner in response to transient visual inputs. Possible mechanisms underlying this phenomenon will be discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

ISSN

0898-929X

Publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press

Issue

5

Volume

15

Page range

664-672

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-03-11

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2013-03-11

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2013-03-11

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