Synchronous information presented in 40-Hz flicker enhances visual featurebinding

Recent neurophysiological studies have encouraged speculation that the sync hronization of spatially distributed neural assemblies (at around 40 Hr in the neocortex) is responsible Sor the binding of discrete stimulus componen ts into coherent wholes during visual object perception. Using a novel para digm, we demonstrated specific figural priming under 40-Hz stimulus modulat ion conditions. Further, under these conditions, observers were not aware o f the prime's existence, no,. did the prime act as a stimulus-driven attent ional cue. These findings provide the first psyche physical support Sor a t heory of preattentive coding of visual objects, based on an externally entr ained and thereby synchronized 40-Hz feature-binding mechanism.