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Brain Sciences
Special Issues
From Visual Perception to Consciousness
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From Visual Perception to Consciousness

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2025 | Viewed by 7051

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Baingio Pinna

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sciences of Languages, University of Sassari, Via Roma 151, 1-07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: visual illusions and paradoxes; psychophysics and experimental phenomenology of visual processes (spatial vision, motion perception, color vision, shape perception and perceptual meaning); perceptual organization; visual science of art; visual design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The progression from vision to consciousness entails a cascade of complex neural processes that occur within the brain. A simplified overview of the sequence is provided below:

  1. Sensory input;
  2. Early visual processing;
  3. Feature integration;
  4. Object recognition;
  5. Attention and selection;
  6. Global processing and binding;
  7. Higher-level processing;
  8. Phenomenal consciousness and visual awareness.

The perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying the journey from vision to consciousness are still actively investigated and debated in scientific research. The complexity of consciousness and its relationship to the underlying cognitive and neural processes make it a challenging and ongoing area of investigation that spans disciplines such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

The aim and scope of this Special Issue are as follows:

  1. To address the following questions: "How does consciousness emerge from visual perception?" and "How does consciousness influence vision?"
  2. To bring together scientists and scholars from different disciplines for multidisciplinary interactions, aiming to deepen the understanding of intrinsic problems, principles, phenomena, and illusions related to the transition from vision to consciousness.
  3. To stimulate the development of new insights, theories, and approaches that transcend the usual boundaries of scientific and cultural disciplines and provide new insights into existing mechanisms and processes.

All article types are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Baingio Pinna
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 3487 KiB  
Article
What Factors Affect Binocular Summation?
by Marzouk Yassin, Maria Lev and Uri Polat
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(12), 1205; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14121205 - 28 Nov 2024
Viewed by 567
Abstract
Binocular vision may serve as a good model for research on awareness. Binocular summation (BS) can be defined as the superiority of binocular over monocular visual performance. Early studies of BS found an improvement of a factor of about 1.4 (empirically), leading to [...] Read more.
Binocular vision may serve as a good model for research on awareness. Binocular summation (BS) can be defined as the superiority of binocular over monocular visual performance. Early studies of BS found an improvement of a factor of about 1.4 (empirically), leading to models suggesting a quadratic summation of the two monocular inputs (√2). Neural interaction modulates a target’s visibility within the same eye or between eyes (facilitation or suppression). Recent results indicated that at a closely flanked stimulus, BS is characterized by instability; it relies on the specific order in which the stimulus condition is displayed. Otherwise, BS is stable. These results were revealed in experiments where the tested eye was open, whereas the other eye was occluded (mono-optic glasses, blocked presentation); thus, the participants were aware of the tested eye. Therefore, in this study, we repeated the same experiments but utilized stereoscopic glasses (intermixed at random presentation) to control the monocular and binocular vision, thus potentially eliminating awareness of the tested condition. The stimuli consisted of a central vertically oriented Gabor target and high-contrast Gabor flankers positioned in two configurations (orthogonal or collinear) with target–flanker separations of either two or three wavelengths (λ), presented at four different presentation times (40, 80, 120, and 200 ms). The results indicate that when utilizing stereoscopic glasses and mixing the testing conditions, the BS is normal, raising the possibility that awareness may be involved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Visual Perception to Consciousness)
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17 pages, 1618 KiB  
Article
Consciousness and Energy Processing in Neural Systems
by Robert Pepperell
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(11), 1112; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14111112 - 1 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1443
Abstract
Background: Our understanding of the relationship between neural activity and psychological states has advanced greatly in recent decades. But we are still unable to explain conscious experience in terms of physical processes occurring in our brains. Methods: This paper introduces a conceptual framework [...] Read more.
Background: Our understanding of the relationship between neural activity and psychological states has advanced greatly in recent decades. But we are still unable to explain conscious experience in terms of physical processes occurring in our brains. Methods: This paper introduces a conceptual framework that may contribute to an explanation. All physical processes entail the transfer, transduction, and transformation of energy between portions of matter as work is performed in material systems. If the production of consciousness in nervous systems is a physical process, then it must entail the same. Here the nervous system, and the brain in particular, is considered as a material system that transfers, transduces, and transforms energy as it performs biophysical work. Conclusions: Evidence from neuroscience suggests that conscious experience is produced in the organic matter of nervous systems when they perform biophysical work at classical and quantum scales with a certain level of dynamic complexity or organization. An empirically grounded, falsifiable, and testable hypothesis is offered to explain how energy processing in nervous systems may produce conscious experience at a fundamental physical level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Visual Perception to Consciousness)
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15 pages, 4618 KiB  
Article
Environmental Lighting Conditions, Phenomenal Contrast, and the Conscious Perception of Near and Far
by Birgitta Dresp-Langley and Adam J. Reeves
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(10), 966; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14100966 - 26 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1072
Abstract
Background: Recent evidence in systems neuroscience suggests that lighting conditions affect the whole chain of brain processing, from retina to high-level cortical networks, for perceptual and cognitive function. Here, visual adaptation levels to three different environmental lighting conditions, (1) darkness, (2) daylight, and [...] Read more.
Background: Recent evidence in systems neuroscience suggests that lighting conditions affect the whole chain of brain processing, from retina to high-level cortical networks, for perceptual and cognitive function. Here, visual adaptation levels to three different environmental lighting conditions, (1) darkness, (2) daylight, and (3) prolonged exposure to very bright light akin to sunlight, were simulated in lab to investigate the effects of light adaptation levels on classic cases of subjective contrast, assimilation, and contrast-induced relative depth in achromatic, i.e., ON–OFF pathway mediated visual configurations. Methods: After adaptation/exposure to a given lighting condition, configurations were shown in grouped and ungrouped conditions in random order to healthy young humans in computer-controlled two-alternative forced-choice procedures that consisted of deciding, as quickly as possible, which of two background patterns in a given configuration of achromatic contrast appeared lighter, or which of two foreground patterns appeared to stand out in front, as if it were nearer to the observer. Results: We found a statistically significant effect of the adaptation levels on the consciously perceived subjective contrast (F(2,23) = 20.73; p < 0.001) and the relative depth (F(2,23) = 12.67; p < 0.001), a statistically significant interaction between the adaptation levels and the grouping factor (F(2,23) = 4.73; p < 0.05) on subjective contrast, and a statistically significant effect of the grouping factor on the relative depth (F(2,23) = 13.71; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Visual adaption to different lighting conditions significantly alters the conscious perception of contrast and assimilation, classically linked to non-linear functional synergies between ON and OFF processing channels in the visual brain, and modulates the repeatedly demonstrated effectiveness of luminance contrast as a depth cue; the physically brighter pattern regions in the configurations are no longer consistently perceived as nearer to a conscious observer under daylight and extreme bright light adapted (rod-saturated) conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Visual Perception to Consciousness)
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29 pages, 451 KiB  
Article
An Unavoidable Mind-Set Reversal: Consciousness in Vision Science
by Liliana Albertazzi
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(7), 735; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14070735 - 22 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1188
Abstract
In recent decades, the debate on consciousness has been conditioned by the idea of bottom-up emergence, which has influenced scientific research and raised a few obstacles to any attempt to bridge the explanatory gap. The analysis and explanation of vision conducted according to [...] Read more.
In recent decades, the debate on consciousness has been conditioned by the idea of bottom-up emergence, which has influenced scientific research and raised a few obstacles to any attempt to bridge the explanatory gap. The analysis and explanation of vision conducted according to the accredited methodologies of scientific research in terms of physical stimuli, objectivity, methods, and explanation has encountered the resistance of subjective experience. Moreover, original Gestalt research into vision has generally been merged with cognitive neuroscience. Experimental phenomenology, building on the legacy of Gestalt psychology, has obtained new results in the fields of amodal contours and color stratifications, light perception, figurality, space, so-called perceptual illusions, and subjective space and time. Notwithstanding the outcomes and the impulse given to neuroscientific analyses, the research carried out around these phenomena has never directly confronted the issue of what it means to be conscious or, in other words, the nature of consciousness as self-referentiality. Research has tended to focus on the percept. Therefore, explaining the non-detachability of parts in subjective experience risks becoming a sort of impossible achievement, similar to that of Baron Munchausen, who succeeds in escaping unharmed from this quicksand by pulling himself out by his hair. This paper addresses how to analyze seeing as an undivided whole by discussing several basic dimensions of phenomenal consciousness on an experimental basis and suggesting an alternative way of escaping this quicksand. This mind-set reversal also sheds light on the organization and dependence relationships between phenomenology, psychophysics, and neuroscience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Visual Perception to Consciousness)
13 pages, 2797 KiB  
Article
Probing the Bottleneck of Awareness Formed by Foveal Crowding: A Neurophysiological Study
by Ziv Siman-Tov, Maria Lev and Uri Polat
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(2), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14020169 - 7 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1917
Abstract
Crowding occurs when an easily identified isolated stimulus is surrounded by stimuli with similar properties, making it very difficult to identify. Crowding is suggested as a mechanism that creates a bottleneck in object recognition and awareness. Recently, we showed that brief presentation times [...] Read more.
Crowding occurs when an easily identified isolated stimulus is surrounded by stimuli with similar properties, making it very difficult to identify. Crowding is suggested as a mechanism that creates a bottleneck in object recognition and awareness. Recently, we showed that brief presentation times at the fovea resulted in a significant crowding effect on target identification, impaired the target’s color awareness, and resulted in a slower reaction time. However, when tagging the target with a red letter, the crowding effect is abolished. Crowding is widely considered a grouping; hence, it is pre-attentive. An event-related potential (ERP) study that investigated the spatial–temporal properties of crowding suggested the involvement of higher-level visual processing. Here, we investigated whether ERP’s components may be affected by crowding and tagging, and whether the temporal advantage of ERP can be utilized to gain further information about the crowding mechanism. The participants reported target identification using our standard foveal crowing paradigm. It is assumed that crowding occurs due to a suppressive effect; thus, it can be probed by changes in perceptual (N1, ~160 ms) and attentive (P3 ~300–400 ms) components. We found a suppression effect (less negative ERP magnitude) in N1 under foveal crowding, which was recovered under tagging conditions. ERP’s amplitude components (N1 and P3) and the behavioral proportion correct are highly correlated. These findings suggest that crowding is an early grouping mechanism that may be combined with later processing involving the segmentation mechanism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Visual Perception to Consciousness)
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