Head of the working group: Dr. Maximilian Bruchmann

A large proportion of sensory information entering our brain is not consciously perceived. It is still debated which neurocognitive mechanisms are responsible for preventing conscious perception and to what extent nonconscious stimuli are processed. The working group aims to understand (1) the cognitive and neuronal preconditions and specific experimental methods that lead to unawareness of stimuli, (2) the role of specific behavioral measurements to separate between nonconscious vs. conscious perceptions, and (3) the extent of processing of nonconscious stimuli depending on specific stimulus attributes (low-level information, content, emotional relevance) and interindividual differences (for example, state or trait anxiety). Preconditions involve, for example, attentional conditions or expectations and phasic fluctuations in the excitability of neurons. Different experimental methods (such as visual masking, attentional blink, flash suppression, or inattentional blindness) are assumed to suppress conscious perception on different levels of the information-processing stream. Furthermore, behavioral measurements can be based on objective and subjective criteria and inform our conceptualization of consciousness as either a dichotomous all-or-none or a gradual phenomenon. Different neuroscientific methods, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), are used to reveal the scope of nonconscious stimulus processing.

1. How does the specific attentional focus and load affect whether stimuli become conscious, and how does it influence the processing of detected or undetected stimuli?
2. Which conditions and neuronal processes underlie veridical and non-veridical perceptions of the presence or absence of stimuli (for example, related to response criteria, confidence, illusory perceptions, or false alarms)?
3. When and where in the brain do different blinding methods interfere with the generation of a conscious percept?
4. Under which experimental conditions and to what extent can we observe processing of the emotional relevance of nonconscious stimuli?

• Bruchmann, M., Fahnemann, K., Schindler, S., Busch, N.A., & Straube, T. (2023). Early neural potentiation to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Psychophysiology, e14215. doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14215
• Roth-Paysen, M.L., Bröcker, A., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T. (2022). Early and late electrophysiological correlates of gradual perceptual awareness in- and outside the Attentional Blink window. Neuroimage, 263, 119652. doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119652
• Bruchmann, M., Schindler, S., & Straube, T. (2020). The spatial frequency spectrum of fearful faces modulates early and mid-latency ERPs but not the N170. Psychophysiology, 57(9), e13597. doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13597
• Schlossmacher, I., Junghöfer, M., Straube, T., & Bruchmann, M. (2017). No differential effects to facial expressions under continuous flash suppression: An event-related potentials study. Neuroimage, 163, 276-285. doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.09.034

More publications