The conscious experience of color constancy and neural responses to subliminal deviations – A behavioral and EEG/ERP oddball study

Abstract

Introduction: Color constancy, a property of conscious color experience, maintains object color appearance across illuminant changes. We investigated the neural correlates of subliminal vs. conscious stimulus deviations of color constancy manipulations. Methods: Behavioral and Oddball EEG/ERP experiments were conducted (n = 20). Psychophysical illuminant variation discrimination thresholds were first estimated, to establish individual perceptual awareness ranges, allowing for simulation of natural daylight spectral and spatial variations on colored surfaces, at different ambiguity levels. Results: Behavioral results validated illuminant choice. ERPs showed a significant modulation of posterior P1 component specifically for the subliminal global uniform deviation condition, respecting color constancy. Neural correlates of conscious percepts were identified at posterior N2-P3 latencies, parietal (P3b) and frontal regions. Conclusions: We identified an early subliminal correlate of low-level illuminant change, which reflects automatic unconscious detection of global color constancy deviations. Its suppression under conscious perception is probably due to top-down suppression according to prediction error models.