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Science 15 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1786 - 1788
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133197
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Reports

Greater Disruption Due to Failure of Inhibitory Control on an Ambiguous Distractor

Yoshiaki Tsushima,1 Yuka Sasaki,2,3 Takeo Watanabe1*

Considerable evidence indicates that a stimulus that is subthreshold, and thus consciously invisible, influences brain activity and behavioral performance. However, it is not clear how subthreshold stimuli are processed in the brain. We found that a task-irrelevant subthreshold coherent motion led to a stronger disturbance in task performance than did suprathreshold motion. With the subthreshold motion, activity in the visual cortex measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging was higher, but activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex was lower, than with suprathreshold motion. These results suggest that subthreshold irrelevant signals are not subject to effective inhibitory control.

1 Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
2 Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
3 Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Shimojo Implicit Brain Function Project, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: takeo{at}bu.edu

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E-Letters:

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Invisible Stimuli and Visual Attention Deficits
Maurits Van den Noort
Science Online, 26 Mar 2007 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)