V. Di Lollo et al., Competition for consciousness among visual events: The psychophysics of reentrant visual processes, J EXP PSY G, 129(4), 2000, pp. 481-507
Advances in neuroscience implicate reentrant signaling as the predominant f
orm of communication between brain areas. This principle was used in a seri
es of masking experiments that defy explanation by feed-foward theories. Th
e masking occurs when a brief display of target plus mask is continued with
the mask alone. Two masking processes were found: an early process affecte
d by physical factors such as adapting luminance and a later process affect
ed by attentional factors such as set size. This later process is called ma
sking by object substitution, because it occurs whenever there is a mismatc
h between the reentrant visual representation and the ongoing lower level a
ctivity. Iterative reentrant processing was formalized in a computational m
odel that provides an excellent fit to the data. The model provides a more
comprehensive account of all forms of visual masking than do the long-held
feed-forward views based on inhibitory contour interactions.