Psychophysiology Of Visual Masking

Section headings: Foreword; Introduction -- The Problem of Visual Masking; Facts and the Theories of Visual Masking; The Conception of Perceptual Retouch and its Experimental Control; The Psychophysiological Modelling from Short-Term Images; Conclusions.

Visual masking is a technique used in cognitive research to understand pre-conscious processes (priming, for example), consciousness, visual limits, and perception issues associated with psychopathology. This book is a short format review of research using visual masking: how it has been used, and what these experiments have discovered.Topics covered include concepts, varieties, and theories of masking; masking and microgenetic mechanisms and stagesof visual processing; psychopharmacological and genetic factors in masking, and more. Provides succinct information about the widely dispersed masking studies and points out some new trends in masking research Reviews transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as an alternative to the traditional psychophysical masking methods Comments on the methodological pitfalls hidden in the practice of masking, helping to improve the quality of future research where masking is used as a tool Informs readers about recent developments in theoretical attempts to understand masking

Our visual system can process information at both conscious and unconscious levels. Understanding the factors that control whether a stimulus reaches our awareness, and the fate of those stimuli that remain at an unconscious level, are the major challenges of brain science in the new millennium. Since its publication in 1984, Visual Masking has established itself as a classic text in the field of cognitive psychology. In the years since, there have been considerable advances in the cognitive neurosciences, and a growth of interest in the topic of consciousness, and the time is ripe for a new edition of this text. Where most current approaches to the study of visual consciousness adopt a 'steady-state' view, the approach presented in this book explores its dynamic properties. This new edition uses the technique of visual masking to explore temporal aspects of conscious and unconscious processes down to a resolution in the millisecond range. The 'time slices' through conscious and unconscious vision revealed by the visual masking technique can shed light on both normal and abnormal operations in the brain. The main focus of this book is on the microgenesis of visual form and pattern perception - microgenesis referring to the processes occurring in the visual system from the time of stimulus presentation on the retinae to the time, a few hundred milliseconds later, of its registration at conscious or unconscious perceptual and behavioural levels. The book takes a highly integrative approach by presenting microgenesis within a broad context encompassing visuo-temporal phenomena, attention, and consciousness.

Originally published in 1988, in several respects this book is a tribute to the outstanding career of the late Donald B. Lindsley (1907-2003) who, over a span of more than 55 years, had contributed greatly to the development of research in the fields of neurophysiology, psychophysiology, and experimental psychology. The impetus for the book was a conference held at UCLA to honor Professor Lindsley for his numerous and significant contributions to psychology. The chapters of this book have been written by Professor Lindsley’s colleagues and co-workers, and by former students and postdoctoral fellows. The introductory chapter, written by Lindsley himself, tells of 2000 years of "pondering". The chapter is a discussion of the lengthy history of neurophysiology, psychophysiology, and behaviour. Many of the topics mentioned in this chapter are subsequently presented in the book as reports of ongoing research in the field.

Motion processing is an essential piece of the complex brain machinery that allows us to reconstruct the 3D layout of objects in the environment, to break camouflage, to perform scene segmentation, to estimate the ego movement, and to control our action. Although motion perception and its neural basis have been a topic of intensive research and modeling the last two decades, recent experimental evidences have stressed the dynamical aspects of motion integration and segmentation. This book presents the most recent approaches that have changed our view of biological motion processing. These new experimental evidences call for new models emphasizing the collective dynamics of large population of neurons rather than the properties of separate individual filters. Chapters will stress how the dynamics of motion processing can be used as a general approach to understand the brain dynamics itself.

How does the brain go about the business of being conscious? Though we cannot yet provide a complete answer, this book explains what is now known about the neural basis of human consciousness.The last decade has witnessed the dawn of an exciting new era of cognitive neuroscience. For example, combination of new imaging technologies and experimental study of attention has linked brain activity to specific psychological functions. The authors are leaders in psychology and neuroscience who have conducted original research on consciousness. They wish to communicate the highlights of this research to both specialists and interested others, and hope that this volume will be read by students concerned with the neuroscientific underpinnings of subjective experience. As a whole, the book progresses from an overview of conscious awareness, through careful explanation of identified neurocognitive systems, and extends to theories which tackle global aspects of consciousness. (Series B)