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      Is Open Access

      Time Slices: What Is the Duration of a Percept?

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      1 , 2 , 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , *
      PLoS Biology
      Public Library of Science

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          Abstract

          We experience the world as a seamless stream of percepts. However, intriguing illusions and recent experiments suggest that the world is not continuously translated into conscious perception. Instead, perception seems to operate in a discrete manner, just like movies appear continuous although they consist of discrete images. To explain how the temporal resolution of human vision can be fast compared to sluggish conscious perception, we propose a novel conceptual framework in which features of objects, such as their color, are quasi-continuously and unconsciously analyzed with high temporal resolution. Like other features, temporal features, such as duration, are coded as quantitative labels. When unconscious processing is “completed,” all features are simultaneously rendered conscious at discrete moments in time, sometimes even hundreds of milliseconds after stimuli were presented.

          Abstract

          Although we experience the world as a seamless flow of percepts, illusions and experiments suggest that perception operates in a discrete manner. This Unsolved Mystery presents a novel theoretical framework to explain how discrete neural processes create the illusion of a continuous stream of conscious perception.

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          Most cited references56

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          Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities.

          J Hopfield (1982)
          Computational properties of use of biological organisms or to the construction of computers can emerge as collective properties of systems having a large number of simple equivalent components (or neurons). The physical meaning of content-addressable memory is described by an appropriate phase space flow of the state of a system. A model of such a system is given, based on aspects of neurobiology but readily adapted to integrated circuits. The collective properties of this model produce a content-addressable memory which correctly yields an entire memory from any subpart of sufficient size. The algorithm for the time evolution of the state of the system is based on asynchronous parallel processing. Additional emergent collective properties include some capacity for generalization, familiarity recognition, categorization, error correction, and time sequence retention. The collective properties are only weakly sensitive to details of the modeling or the failure of individual devices.
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            The distinct modes of vision offered by feedforward and recurrent processing.

            An analysis of response latencies shows that when an image is presented to the visual system, neuronal activity is rapidly routed to a large number of visual areas. However, the activity of cortical neurons is not determined by this feedforward sweep alone. Horizontal connections within areas, and higher areas providing feedback, result in dynamic changes in tuning. The differences between feedforward and recurrent processing could prove pivotal in understanding the distinctions between attentive and pre-attentive vision as well as between conscious and unconscious vision. The feedforward sweep rapidly groups feature constellations that are hardwired in the visual brain, yet is probably incapable of yielding visual awareness; in many cases, recurrent processing is necessary before the features of an object are attentively grouped and the stimulus can enter consciousness.
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              A framework for consciousness.

              Here we summarize our present approach to the problem of consciousness. After an introduction outlining our general strategy, we describe what is meant by the term 'framework' and set it out under ten headings. This framework offers a coherent scheme for explaining the neural correlates of (visual) consciousness in terms of competing cellular assemblies. Most of the ideas we favor have been suggested before, but their combination is original. We also outline some general experimental approaches to the problem and, finally, acknowledge some relevant aspects of the brain that have been left out of the proposed framework.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                PLoS Biol
                PLoS Biol
                plos
                plosbiol
                PLoS Biology
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1544-9173
                1545-7885
                12 April 2016
                April 2016
                12 April 2016
                : 14
                : 4
                : e1002433
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
                [2 ]Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
                [3 ]Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
                [4 ]Neuroscience Center Zürich, University of Zürich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland
                [5 ]Zürich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
                Author notes

                The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Article
                PBIOLOGY-D-15-03422
                10.1371/journal.pbio.1002433
                4829156
                27070777
                4ff06a8f-c427-450e-b4fb-79db2020d7f6
                © 2016 Herzog et al

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

                History
                Page count
                Figures: 3, Tables: 0, Pages: 12
                Funding
                This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (MHH: FN_320030_153001; FS: BSSG10_155915). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Unsolved Mystery
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                Cognitive Science
                Cognitive Psychology
                Perception
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                Psychology
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                Neuroscience
                Sensory Perception
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                Sensory Perception
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