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Science 20 April 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5516, pp. 510 - 512
DOI: 10.1126/science.1057099
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Reports

Fast Backprojections from the Motion to the Primary Visual Area Necessary for Visual Awareness

Alvaro Pascual-Leone,1* Vincent Walsh2

Much is known about the pathways from photoreceptors to higher visual areas in the brain. However, how we become aware of what we see or of having seen at all is a problem that has eluded neuroscience. Recordings from macaque V1 during deactivation of MT+/V5 and psychophysical studies of perceptual integration suggest that feedback from secondary visual areas to V1 is necessary for visual awareness. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to probe the timing and function of feedback from human area MT+/V5 to V1 and found its action to be early and critical for awareness of visual motion.

1 Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Kirstein Hall KS454, Boston MA 02115, USA.
2 Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: apleone{at}caregroup.harvard.edu

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