Cerebral correlates of visual awareness.
Neuropsychologia September 1995 DOI: 10.1016/0028-3932(95)00052-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes that a brain process cannot enter visual awareness unless it both produces abstracted, non-retinocentric coding and is selectively amplified through neuronal gating associated with selective spatial attention. The author argues this dual requirement may help explain "covert vision" phenomena in hemianopia, apperceptive agnosia, and unilateral spatial neglect. |
Abstract
While it may be a long time before we can specify the mechanisms through which a brain process achieves awareness, it may be possible to determine as a first step whether awareness is limited to the products of certain kinds of processing. In the domain of vision, for example, perceptual awareness might only be attainable in association with object-centred coding, configural representations of space, and other such forms of abstracted (non-retinocentric) coding. It appears that these forms of visual coding are anatomically restricted to telencephalic structures, and indeed it has been argued that they may be peculiar to, or at least visually dependent upon, the 'ventral stream' of visual areas with the cortex. It is suggested here that such a brain process would still not be able to enter visual awareness unless it was selectively amplified through neuronal gating of the kind that has been shown to be correlated with selective spatial attention. The present paper explores the extent to which this putative dual requirement for visual consciousness might form a basis for understanding the various phenomena of "covert vision" seen in patients suffering from hemianopia, apperceptive agnosia, and unilateral spatial neglect.