October 2003
Volume 3, Issue 9
Free
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   October 2003
Superstitious perceptions of a face revealed by non phase-locked gamma oscillations in the human brain
Author Affiliations
  • Valerie Goffaux
    Unité de Neurosciences cognitives (NESC), UCL, Belgium Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie (NEFY), UCL, Belgium
  • Corentin Jacques
    Unité de Neurosciences cognitives (NESC), UCL, Belgium Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie (NEFY), UCL, Belgium
  • Andre Mouraux
    Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie (NEFY), UCL, Belgium
  • Frederic Gosselin
    Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal
  • Philippe G Schyns
    Department of Psychology Bruno Rossion Unité de Neurosciences cognitives (NESC), UCL, Belgium Department of cognitive and linguistic science, Brown University University of Glasgow
Journal of Vision October 2003, Vol.3, 94. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/3.9.94
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      Valerie Goffaux, Corentin Jacques, Andre Mouraux, Frederic Gosselin, Philippe G Schyns; Superstitious perceptions of a face revealed by non phase-locked gamma oscillations in the human brain. Journal of Vision 2003;3(9):94. https://doi.org/10.1167/3.9.94.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

In humans, non phase-locked (NPL) brain oscillations in the gamma band (30 – 80 Hz) have been related to the integration of widely distributed cortical representations and are thought to participate in the top-down modulations of visual processes, and more generally in the constructive aspects of perception (Engel et al., 2001). In the present study, we employed the technique of Superstitious Perceptions (Gosselin & Schyns, 2003) to better understand the neurophysiological determinants of the superstitious perception of a face.

Using high-density EEG recording, sixteen observers were asked to detect a face while stimulated with only white noise (400 different templates of 32× 43 pixels, to mirror the aspect ratio of a face). Superstitious perceptions occur whenever the observer believes that a face is present in the white noise. This paradigm is better suited to isolate top-down components of visual processing because white noise is only very weakly correlated with a face signal. The observers detected a face on 36% of the noise templates, on average. When observers reported seeing a face, EEG recordings at posterior-visual scalp regions revealed a NPL increase of gamma (∼40 Hz) oscillation amplitudes centred around 200 ms post-stimulus onset. A classification image rendered the face information that best predicts the superstitious perceptions, and the gamma activity. This image reveals two eyes, bilaterally organized around the X axis, at about 2/3 height on the Y axis. This study shows that NPL gamma oscillations in the human visual system subtend the type of top-down activity required for superstitious visual perceptions.

Goffaux, V., Jacques, C., Mouraux, A., Gosselin, F., Schyns, P. G., Rossion, B.(2003). Superstitious perceptions of a face revealed by non phase-locked gamma oscillations in the human brain [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 3( 9): 94, 94a, http://journalofvision.org/3/9/94/, doi:10.1167/3.9.94. [CrossRef]
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