Single-neuron activity reflects visual awareness in human lateral occipital complex
Michaël Vanhoyland, Peter Janssen, Tom Theys
Research Square March 25, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5941203/v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational electrophysiological recording study |
|---|---|
| Population | Human lateral occipital complex (LO) neurons during visual perception tasks |
| Key findings | In single- and multiunit recordings from the human lateral occipital complex across backward masking, flash suppression, and binocular rivalry, reliable stimulus decoding from neuronal population responses required conscious perception in all three paradigms. The authors conclude that LO responses predominantly align with conscious perception. |
Abstract
Abstract Conscious perception, a critical aspect of human cognition, is assumed to emerge from a complex network of interacting brain regions that transmit information via feedforward and recurrent pathways. This study presents the first single- and multiunit recordings from the human lateral occipital complex (LO), a key region for shape and object recognition, during three distinct perceptual paradigms: backward masking, flash suppression and binocular rivalry. In all three paradigms, conscious perception was required for reliable stimulus decoding from neuronal population responses. These findings highlight the intricate neural mechanisms underlying visual awareness and show that LO responses predominantly align with conscious perception, offering new insights into the neural correlates of consciousness.