An eyeblink has a clear effect on low-level information processing because it temporarily occludes all visual information. Recent evidence suggests that eyeblinks can also modulate higher level processes (e.g., attentional resources), and vice versa. Despite these putative effects on different levels of information processing, eyeblinks are typically neglected in vision and in consciousness...
A widely held view on consciousness is that it is related to the 'broadcasting' of sensory information to the whole brain [1-3]. Despite the fact that there is general support for this view, it remains unclear how exactly this broadcasting is established. It has been proposed [2,3] that thalamocortical circuits are an important mediator of such broadcasting, but empirical support for this claim...
An important approach to understand how the brain gives rise to consciousness is to probe the depth of unconscious processing, thus to define the key features that cause conscious awareness. Here, we investigate the possibility for subliminal stimuli to shape the context for unconscious processing. Context effects have generally been assumed to require consciousness. In the present experiment,...