Attention But Not Awareness Modulates the BOLD Signal in the Human V1 During Binocular Suppression

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1203161
• Publication Date: 2011-11-10T19:44:28Z
• Authors: Masataka Watanabe; Kang Cheng; Yusuke Murayama; Kenichi Ueno; Takeshi Asamizuya; Keiji Tanaka; Nikos Logothetis
• Keywords: Visibility; Blood oxygenation; Blood-oxygen-level dependent; Invisibility

Although recent psychophysical studies indicate that visual awareness and top-down attention are two distinct processes, it is not clear how they neurally dissociated in the system. Using a two-by-two factorial functional magnetic resonance imaging design with binocular suppression, we found visibility or invisibility of target led to only nonsignificant blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) effects human primary cortex (V1). Directing toward away from had much larger robust across all study participants. The difference lower-level limit BOLD activation between illustrates neural correlates processes. Our results agree previously reported V1 on attention, while invite reconsideration role awareness.