Is Consciousness a Gradual Phenomenon?: Evidence for an All-or-None Bifurcation During the Attentional Blink
Abstract
Several theories of the neural correlates of consciousness assume that there is a continuum of perception, associated with a gradual change in the intensity of brain activation. But some models, considering reverberation of neural activity as necessary for conscious perception, predict a sharp nonlinear transition between unconscious and conscious processing. We asked participants to evaluate the visibility of target words on a continuous scale during the attentional blink, which is known to impede explicit reports. Participants used this continuous scale in an all-or-none fashion: Targets presented during the blink were either identified as well as targets presented outside the blink period or not detected at all. We suggest that a stochastic nonlinear bifurcation in neural activity underlies the all-or-none perception observed during the attentional blink.
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- Authors
- Sergent, C., & Dehaene, S.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Sergent, Claire
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-11
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 720-728
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2052261430
- Cited by
- 384
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 18.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- attentional blink, consciousness, neural correlates of consciousness, nonlinear bifurcation, unconscious processes
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Consciousness, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Male, Visual Cortex, Visual Perception
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