TMS effects on subjective and objective measures of vision: Stimulation intensity and pre- versus post-stimulus masking

T.A. de Graaf*, S. Cornelsen, C. Jacobs, A.T. Sack

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to mask visual stimuli, disrupting visual task performance or preventing visual awareness. While TMS masking studies generally fix stimulation intensity, we hypothesized that varying the intensity of TMS pulses in a masking paradigm might inform several ongoing debates concerning TMS disruption of vision as measured subjectively versus objectively, and pre-stimulus (forward) versus post-stimulus (backward) TMS masking. We here show that both pre-stimulus TMS pulses and post-stimulus TMS pulses could strongly mask visual stimuli. We found no dissociations between TMS effects on the subjective and objective measures of vision for any masking window or intensity, ruling out the option that TMS intensity levels determine whether dissociations between subjective and objective vision are obtained. For the post-stimulus time window particularly, we suggest that these data provide new constraints for (e.g. recurrent) models of vision and visual awareness. Finally, our data are in line with the idea that pre-stimulus masking operates differently from conventional post-stimulus masking.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1244-1255
Number of pages12
JournalConsciousness and Cognition
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • Masking
  • Consciousness
  • Vision
  • Suppression
  • TMS
  • Dosage
  • Intensity
  • Pre-stimulus
  • Feedback
  • Feedforward
  • Forward
  • Backward
  • Recurrent
  • Stimulation
  • TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION
  • PRIMARY VISUAL-CORTEX
  • HUMAN OCCIPITAL CORTEX
  • SINGLE-UNIT ACTIVITY
  • REVERSE HIERARCHIES
  • UNCONSCIOUS VISION
  • ALPHA RHYTHMS
  • V1 ACTIVITY
  • PERCEPTION
  • AWARENESS

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