To make sense of ambiguous and, at times, fragmentary sensory input, the
brain must rely on a process of active interpretation. At any given moment,
only one of several possible perceptual representations prevails in our conscious experience. Our hypothesis is that the competition between alternative representations induces a pattern of neural activation resembling
cognitive conflict, eventually leading to fluctuations between different perceptual outcomes in the case of steep competition. To ...
To make sense of ambiguous and, at times, fragmentary sensory input, the
brain must rely on a process of active interpretation. At any given moment,
only one of several possible perceptual representations prevails in our conscious experience. Our hypothesis is that the competition between alternative representations induces a pattern of neural activation resembling
cognitive conflict, eventually leading to fluctuations between different perceptual outcomes in the case of steep competition. To test this hypothesis,
we probed changes in perceptual awareness between competing images
using binocular rivalry. We drew our predictions from the conflict monitoring theory, which holds that cognitive control is invoked by the detection of
conflict during information processing. Our results show that fronto-medial
theta oscillations (5–7 Hz), an established electroencephalography (EEG)
marker of conflict, increases right before perceptual alternations and
decreases thereafter, suggesting that conflict monitoring occurs during perceptual competition. Furthermore, to investigate conflict resolution via attentional engagement, we looked for a neural marker of perceptual switches as
by parieto-occipital alpha oscillations (8–12 Hz). The power of parietooccipital alpha displayed an inverse pattern to that of fronto-medial theta,
reflecting periods of high interocular inhibition during stable perception,
and low inhibition around moments of perceptual change. Our findings aim
to elucidate the relationship between conflict monitoring mechanisms and
perceptual awareness.
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