Neural Synchrony and Asynchrony as Mechanisms for Perceptual Grouping and Segmentation
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Abstract
The question of whether neural synchrony has functional significance for cortical
processing has been an issue of contention in the recent scientific literature. Although
the balance of evidence now seems to be favoring a vie,v that synchrony does indeed
play a significant functional role, this role's mechanisms and its behavioral consequences
have not been fully elucidated. In this research I add to the growing body of evidence
in favor of a significant functional role for neural synchrony in cortical processing.
By leveraging a modified version of Cheadle, Bauer, Parton, Muller, Bonneh and
Usher (2008)'s psychophysical paradigm and through experiments of own design,
I find evidence suggesting that when contrast oscillations serve as inputs to the
visual system, the system produces behavior that may be more synchronous than
the stimulus or less synchronous than the stimulus depending on whether or not the
oscillations occur on elements of a common object or on elements of separate objects
respectively. The current paradigm has the potential to test behavioral manifestations
of the underlying neural dynamics that heretofore were largely thought to be confined
to physiological measures. Furthermore, I provide a biophysical model that predicts
this behavior and other related electrophysiological findings.