Early top-down influences on bistable perception revealed by event-related potentials.

Full Abstract

A longstanding debate exists in the literature concerning bottom-up vs. top-down influences on bistable perception. Recently, a technique has been developed to measure early changes in brain activity (via ERPs) related to perceptual reversals (Kornmeier & Bach, 2004). An ERP component, the reversal negativity (RN) has been identified, and is characterized as an increase in negative potential over the posterior scalp from 150 to 350 ms for perceptual reversals compared to perceptual stability. This finding, although interesting, has not helped resolve issues related to the bottom-up vs. top-down debate because top-down influences have not been directly manipulated. The current study focused on resolving some of these issues by measuring the RN while observers maintained one of three 'intentional approaches', (1) try to reverse perception as often as possible, (2) try to stabilize perception for as long as possible, and (3) maintain a passive approach. Enhancements in RN amplitude were found for the intention-to-reverse condition compared to the passive condition. This finding suggests an early influence (150 ms) of top-down control on perceptual reversals of bistable figures. Results are discussed in terms of competing attention shifting vs. fatigue-based theories of bistable perception.

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Author information

Author/s: Pitts, Michael A (MA); Gavin, William J (WJ); Nerger, Janice L (JL);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. michaelapitts@ucsd.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Brain and cognition (Brain Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jun; vol 67 (issue 1) : pp 11-24

Dates: Created 2008/05/26; Completed 2008/08/13;

PMID: 18155339, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Form Perception - physiology
Humans
Intention
Male
Psychological Theory
Visual Perception - physiology

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