S.O.T.T: The brain processes visual input to the level of understanding its meaning even if we never consciously perceive that input, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research, led by Jay Sanguinetti of the University of Arizona, challenges currently accepted models about how the brain processes visual information. Sanguinetti, a doctoral candidate in the UA's department of psychology in the College of Science, showed study participants a series of black silhouettes, some of which contained recognizable, real-world objects hidden in the white spaces on the outsides. Working with John Allen, Distinguished Professor of psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience at the University of Arizona, Sanguinetti monitored subjects' brainwaves with an electroencephalogram, or EEG, while they viewed the objects.
"There's a brain signature for meaningful processing," Sanguinetti said. Participants' EEG data showed the signature, a peak in the oscillating brainwaves that occurs about 400 milliseconds after the image was shown, called N400. The participants in our experiments don't see those shapes on the outside; nonetheless, the brain signature tells us that they have processed the meaning of those shapes," said Mary Peterson, a professor in the UA department of psychology and Sanguinetti's advisor. "But the brain rejects them as interpretations, and if it rejects the shapes from conscious perception, then you won't have any awareness of them."...read more>>>....