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Bistable perception alternates between internal and external modes of sensory processing.

ABSTRACT: Perceptual history can exert pronounced effects on the contents of conscious experience: when confronted with completely ambiguous stimuli, perception does not waver at random between diverging stimulus interpretations but sticks with recent percepts for prolonged intervals. Here, we investigated the relevance of perceptual history in situations more similar to everyday experience, where sensory stimuli are usually not completely ambiguous. Using partially ambiguous visual stimuli, we found that the balance between past and present is not stable over time but slowly fluctuates between two opposing modes. For time periods of up to several minutes, perception was either largely determined by perceptual history or driven predominantly by disambiguating sensory evidence. Computational modeling suggested that the construction of unambiguous conscious experiences is modulated by slow fluctuations between internally and externally oriented modes of sensory processing.

SUBMITTER: Weilnhammer V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7967014 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Bistable perception alternates between internal and external modes of sensory processing.

Weilnhammer Veith V Chikermane Meera M Sterzer Philipp P

iScience 20210226 3

Perceptual history can exert pronounced effects on the contents of conscious experience: when confronted with completely ambiguous stimuli, perception does not waver at random between diverging stimulus interpretations but sticks with recent percepts for prolonged intervals. Here, we investigated the relevance of perceptual history in situations more similar to everyday experience, where sensory stimuli are usually not completely ambiguous. Using partially ambiguous visual stimuli, we found that ...[more]

PMID: 33748716

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Project description:Continuous switching between internal and external modes in the brain appears important for generating models of the self and the world. However, how the brain transitions between these two modes remains unknown. We propose that a large synchronization fluctuation of brain networks, emerging only near criticality (i.e., a balanced state between order and disorder), spontaneously creates temporal windows with distinct preferences for integrating the network's internal information or for processing external stimuli. Using a computational model, electroencephalography (EEG) analysis, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis during alterations of consciousness in humans, we report that synchronized and incoherent networks, respectively, bias toward internal and external information with specific network configurations. In the brain network model and EEG-based network, the network preferences are the most prominent at criticality and in conscious states associated with the bandwidth 4-12 Hz, with alternating functional network configurations. However, these network configurations are selectively disrupted in different states of consciousness such as general anesthesia, psychedelic states, minimally conscious states, and unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. The network preference for internal information integration is only significant in conscious states and psychedelic states, but not in other unconscious states, suggesting the importance of internal information integration in maintaining consciousness. The fMRI co-activation pattern analysis shows that functional networks that are sensitive to external stimuli-such as default mode, dorsal attentional, and frontoparietal networks-are activated in incoherent states, while insensitive networks, such as global activation and deactivation networks, are dominated in highly synchronized states. We suggest that criticality produces a functional platform for the brain's capability for continuous switching between two modes, which is crucial for the emergence of consciousness.

Dataset Information

Bistable perception alternates between internal and external modes of sensory processing.

Publications

Bistable perception alternates between internal and external modes of sensory processing.

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