Open AccessAdvantage of Hole Stimulus in Rivalry Competition
Author(s) -
Qinghan Meng,
Dapeng Cui,
Ke Zhou,
Lin Chen,
Yuanye Ma
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0033053
Subject(s) - binocular rivalry , stimulus (psychology) , perception , rivalry , visual perception , luminance , filling in , psychology , physics , subliminal stimuli , communication , optics , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , economics , macroeconomics
Mounting psychophysical evidence suggests that early visual computations are sensitive to the topological properties of stimuli, such as the determination of whether the object has a hole or not. Previous studies have demonstrated that the hole feature took some advantages during conscious perception. In this study, we investigate whether there exists a privileged processing for hole stimuli during unconscious perception. By applying a continuous flash suppression paradigm, the target was gradually introduced to one eye to compete against a flashed full contrast Mondrian pattern which was presented to the other eye. This method ensured that the target image was suppressed during the initial perceptual period. We compared the initial suppressed duration between the stimuli with and without the hole feature and found that hole stimuli required less time than no-hole stimuli to gain dominance against the identical suppression noise. These results suggest the hole feature could be processed in the absence of awareness, and there exists a privileged detection of hole stimuli during suppressed phase in the interocular rivalry.