Distinct electrophysiological correlates of low- and high-level visual consciousness with minimized post-perceptual processing

Abstract

Summary Conscious visual phenomenology comprises multiple representational levels, from basic features to integrated percepts, raising the question of how the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) differentiate accordingly. Event-related potential (ERP) studies identified early occipitotemporal negativities as reliable NCC; yet, it remains unclear whether these capture conscious content beyond low-level features and extend to higher-order representations. Moreover, whether later ERP components index higher-level conscious percepts independent of task-related processing remains contested. The present study addresses this question using an inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm that isolates three representational levels of conscious perception (no, low- or high-level awareness) for an identical stimulus under minimized post-perceptual processing. Across 85 healthy participants, low-level line perception was indexed by an enhanced early occipital negativity, whereas high-level face perception additionally recruited a right-lateralized occipitotemporal negativity, followed by medial posterior positivities. These findings reveal systematic spatiotemporal differentiation of awareness-related potentials across representational levels of consciousness under task-irrelevant conditions.