Masking Disrupts Reentrant Processing in Human Visual Cortex
Open accessAbstract
In masking, a stimulus is rendered invisible through the presentation of a second stimulus shortly after the first. Over the years, authors have typically explained masking by postulating some early disruption process. In these feedforward-type explanations, the mask somehow “catches up” with the target stimulus, disrupting its processing either through lateral or interchannel inhibition. However, studies from recent years indicate that visual perception—and most notably visual awareness itself—may depend strongly on cortico-cortical feedback connections from higher to lower visual areas. This has led some researchers to propose that masking derives its effectiveness from selectively interrupting these reentrant processes. In this experiment, we used electroencephalogram measurements to determine what happens in the human visual cortex during detection of a texture-defined square under nonmasked (seen) and masked (unseen) conditions. Electro-encephalogram derivatives that are typically associated with reentrant processing turn out to be absent in the masked condition. Moreover, extrastriate visual areas are still activated early on by both seen and unseen stimuli, as shown by scalp surface Laplacian current source-density maps. This conclusively shows that feedforward processing is preserved, even when subject performance is at chance as determined by objective measures. From these results, we conclude that masking derives its effectiveness, at least partly, from disrupting reentrant processing, thereby interfering with the neural mechanisms of figure-ground segmentation and visual awareness itself.
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Accumulating evidence suggests a role for superficial pyramidal cells in representation (prediction) and error coding, while L5 cells may function especially in representation coding.
“Accumulating evidence suggests a role for superficial pyramidal cells in representation (prediction) and error coding, while L5 cells may function especially in representation coding.23,118,135”
From An integrative, multiscale view on neural theories of consciousness (2024) · cites this paper as [118]
The Results describe feedforward and reentrant visual processing, and the Discussion addresses contextual modulation in V1; neither assigns prediction, error, or representation coding to particular cell layers. Searches for superficial pyramidal cells and L5 representation coding found no passage addressing those roles. Page numbers were not provided for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Fahrenfort, J. J., Scholte, H. S., & Lamme, V. A. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NL)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 2007-09-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1488-1497
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2136028902
- Cited by
- 344
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 6.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- visual masking, feedforward processing, visual awareness, foreground-background segmentation, extrastriate visual areas, current source density, EEG, visual cortex
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Female, Humans, Male, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Perceptual Masking, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Time Factors, Visual Cortex, Visual Fields
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