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Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Giattino, CM; Alam, ZM; Woldorff, MG
Published in: Cortex
May 2018

Despite long being of interest to both philosophers and scientists, the relationship between attention and perceptual awareness is not well understood, especially to what extent they are even dissociable. Previous studies have shown that stimuli of which we are unaware can orient spatial attention and affect behavior. Yet, relatively little is understood about the neural processes underlying such unconscious orienting of attention, and how they compare to conscious orienting. To directly compare the cascade of attentional processes with and without awareness of the orienting stimulus, we employed a spatial-cueing paradigm and used object-substitution masking to manipulate subjects' awareness of the cues. We recorded EEG during the task, from which we extracted hallmark event-related-potential (ERP) indices of attention. Behaviorally, there was a 61 ms validity effect (invalidly minus validly cued target RTs) on cue-aware trials. On cue-unaware trials, subjects also had a robust validity effect of 20 ms, despite being unaware of the cue. An N2pc to the cue, a hallmark ERP index of the lateralized orienting of attention, was observed for cue-aware but not cue-unaware trials, despite the latter showing a clear behavioral validity effect. Finally, the P1 sensory-ERP response to the targets was larger when validly versus invalidly cued, even when subjects were unaware of the preceding cue, demonstrating enhanced sensory processing of targets following subliminal cues. These results suggest that subliminal stimuli can orient attention and lead to subsequent enhancements to both stimulus sensory processing and behavior, but through different neural mechanisms (such as via a subcortical pathway) than stimuli we perceive.

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Published In

Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1973-8102

Publication Date

May 2018

Volume

102

Start / End Page

14 / 25

Location

Italy

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Space Perception
  • Reaction Time
  • Orientation, Spatial
  • Orientation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

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Giattino, C. M., Alam, Z. M., & Woldorff, M. G. (2018). Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness. Cortex, 102, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.010
Giattino, Charles M., Zaynah M. Alam, and Marty G. Woldorff. “Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness.Cortex 102 (May 2018): 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.010.
Giattino CM, Alam ZM, Woldorff MG. Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness. Cortex. 2018 May;102:14–25.
Giattino, Charles M., et al. “Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness.Cortex, vol. 102, May 2018, pp. 14–25. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.010.
Giattino CM, Alam ZM, Woldorff MG. Neural processes underlying the orienting of attention without awareness. Cortex. 2018 May;102:14–25.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1973-8102

Publication Date

May 2018

Volume

102

Start / End Page

14 / 25

Location

Italy

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Space Perception
  • Reaction Time
  • Orientation, Spatial
  • Orientation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology