Transparent surface segregation enables visual feature binding in rapidly alternating displays

TL;DRAbstract

Visual feature binding-the mechanism by which our typically coherent and unified perceptual experience arises from distributed neural representations-is the source of much intrigue in the neuroscience of perception. Surprisingly, feature binding can occur in rapidly alternating displays of color-orientation combinations (e.g., rightward-orange, leftward-blue). However, we found that when the angular separation between orientations is reduced, binding is selectively impaired at temporal alternation frequencies around 5 Hz. To isolate the mechanisms involved, we devised a novel display in which color-orientation conjunction information was distributed temporally over two checkered stimuli and was perceptually discriminable only within an intermediate range of temporal frequencies (7.5-15 Hz). We propose that accurate color-orientation judgments at frequencies exceeding 5 Hz depend on the rapid formation of persistent surface representations that can be accessed by binding mechanisms, cir

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