Abstract
We discuss the role of feedback in visual masking, visual awareness and attention. Our analysis reveals constraints for feedback mechanisms that limit their potential role in visual masking, and in other general brain functions. We propose a feedforward model of visual masking, and provide a hypothesis to explain the role of feedback in visual masking and general visual processing. We review the anatomy and physiology of feedback mechanisms, and propose that the massive ratio of feedback versus feedforward connections in the visual system may be explained solely by the critical need for top-down attentional modulation.
Project funded by the Barrow Neurological Foundation.