Gamma band activity and the P3 reflect post-perceptual processes, not visual awareness
Open accessAbstract
A primary goal in cognitive neuroscience is to identify neural correlates of conscious perception (NCC). By contrasting conditions in which subjects are aware versus unaware of identical visual stimuli, a number of candidate NCCs have emerged; among them are induced gamma band activity in the EEG and the P3 event-related potential. In most previous studies, however, the critical stimuli were always directly relevant to the subjects' task, such that aware versus unaware contrasts may well have included differences in post-perceptual processing in addition to differences in conscious perception per se. Here, in a series of EEG experiments, visual awareness and task relevance were manipulated independently. Induced gamma activity and the P3 were absent for task-irrelevant stimuli regardless of whether subjects were aware of such stimuli. For task-relevant stimuli, gamma and the P3 were robust and dissociable, indicating that each reflects distinct post-perceptual processes necessary for carrying-out the task but not for consciously perceiving the stimuli. Overall, this pattern of results challenges a number of previous proposals linking gamma band activity and the P3 to conscious perception.
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Most studies depend on subjects' reports or judgements about the stimuli, leading to an overestimation of the true neural correlates of consciousness.
“This is relevant since most studies depend on subjects’ reports or judgements about the stimuli, leading to an overestimation of the true NCC [44, 45].”
From An adversarial collaboration protocol for testing contrasting predictions of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theory (2023) · cites this paper as [45]
The Introduction (section 1.1; page unavailable) says that reporting and decision-making can add post-perceptual activity to aware-versus-unaware comparisons, so previous studies may have mistaken that activity for a neural correlate of consciousness. The General Discussion (section 5.1.6; page unavailable) makes this argument for task-relevant masking and attentional-blink paradigms. It does not establish that most studies rely on reports or judgments, and it presents the resulting misidentification as a possibility rather than an inevitable overestimation. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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References 81 · Cited by 229
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Torrence C Compo GP 1998 A practical guide to wavelet analysis Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 79 1 61 78
- Yuval-Greenberg S Tomer O Keren AS Nelken I Deouell LY 2008 Transient induced gamma-band response in EEG as a manifestation of miniature saccades Neuron 58 3 429 441 18466752
- Authors
- Pitts, M. A., Padwal, J., Fennelly, D., Martínez, A., & Hillyard, S. A.
- Affiliations
- Reed College (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pitts, Michael A.
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 101
- Pages
- 337-350
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4169212
- OpenAlex
- W2124634154
- Cited by
- 229
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (1P50 MH86385, P50MH086385)
- National Eye Institute (R01EY016984)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Keywords
- gamma oscillations, P3 event-related potential, conscious perception, neural correlates of consciousness, visual awareness, task relevance, post-perceptual processing, visual perception
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Awareness, Consciousness, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Male, Psychomotor Performance, Visual Perception, Event-Related Potentials, P300, Young Adult, Gamma Rhythm
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