2026-08-07 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校（EPFL）
An illustration of the SQM test. When several lines are presented successively on a computer monitor, each at a slightly more eccentric location than the previous one, we perceive a single moving line. Moreover, when one line contains a small spatial offset (as shown in the figure on the righht), all the other lines are also perceived as offset. This suggests that visual features are first processed and integrated unconsciously, before the conscious percept emerges. Credit: 2026/EPFL Michael Herzog CC-BY-SA 4.0
＜関連情報＞
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/when-the-brain-edits-its-own-movies/
- https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003894
視覚刺激の無意識的な統合と意識的な知覚は、連続的な神経ダイナミクスによって支えられている Sequential neural dynamics underlie unconscious integration and conscious perception of visual stimuli
Maëlan Q. Menétrey ,Michael H. Herzog,David Pascucci
PLOS Biology Published: July 6, 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003894
Abstract
In some forms of postdictive phenomena, later events influence the perception of earlier ones, suggesting that conscious perception may be preceded by extended periods of unconscious processing. An example is the Sequential Metacontrast (SQM) paradigm, in which vernier offsets are unconsciously integrated over several hundred milliseconds before conscious perception. Obviously, the integrated percept can only emerge after each individual element in the stream has been processed. Thus, the SQM provides a unique opportunity to dissociate unconscious from conscious stages of visual processing, as these stages are well separated in time. Using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings in human participants during the SQM, we identified two distinct stages of neural activity: an early occipital EEG activity pattern (~200 ms after the initial vernier) associated with unconscious processing, and a later centro-parietal EEG pattern (~400 to 600 ms after SQM onset) associated with the integrated percept and the behavioral report. We propose that the transition between these neural patterns marks the shift from unconscious encoding of individual visual stimuli to their integrated percept.
