Distinct electrophysiological correlates of low- and high-level visual consciousness with minimized post-perceptual processing

Abstract

Summary: Conscious visual phenomenology comprises multiple representational levels, from basic features to integrated percepts, raising the question of how the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) differentiate accordingly. Event-related potential (ERP) studies identified early occipitotemporal negativities as reliable NCC; yet, it remains unclear whether these capture conscious content beyond low-level features and extend to higher-order representations. Moreover, whether later ERP components index higher-level conscious percepts independent of task-related processing remains contested. The present study addresses this question using an inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm that isolates three representational levels of conscious perception (no, low- or high-level awareness) for an identical stimulus under minimized post-perceptual processing. Across 85 healthy participants, low-level line perception was indexed by an enhanced early occipital negativity, whereas high-level face perception additionally recruited a right-lateralized occipitotemporal negativity, followed by medial posterior positivities. These findings reveal systematic spatiotemporal differentiation of awareness-related potentials across representational levels of consciousness under task-irrelevant conditions.