How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?

The nature of subjective conscious experience, which accompanies us throughout our waking lives, and how it is generated, remain elusive. One of the challenges in studying subjective experience is disentangling the brain activity related to the sensory stimulus processing and stimulus-guided behavio...

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Main Authors: Xiyao Yu, Reona Yamaguchi, Tadashi Isa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-04-01
Series:Neuroscience Research
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010223001669
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author Xiyao Yu
Reona Yamaguchi
Tadashi Isa
author_facet Xiyao Yu
Reona Yamaguchi
Tadashi Isa
author_sort Xiyao Yu
collection DOAJ
description The nature of subjective conscious experience, which accompanies us throughout our waking lives, and how it is generated, remain elusive. One of the challenges in studying subjective experience is disentangling the brain activity related to the sensory stimulus processing and stimulus-guided behavior from those associated with subjective perception. Blindsight, a phenomenon characterized by the retained visual discrimination performance but impaired visual consciousness due to damage to the primary visual cortex, becomes a special entry point to address this question. However, to fully understand the underlying neural mechanism, relying on studies involving human patients alone is insufficient. In this paper, we tried to address this issue, by first introducing the well-known cases of blindsight, especially the reports on subjective experience in both human and monkey subjects. And then we described how the impaired visual awareness of blindsight monkeys has been discovered and further studied by specifically designed tasks, as verbal reporting is not possible for these animals. Our previous studies also demonstrated that many complex visually guided cognitive processes were still retained despite the impairment of visual awareness. Further investigation needs to be conducted to explore the relationship between visually guided behavior, visual awareness and brain activity in blindsight subjects.
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spelling doaj-art-f6ba3dea69bf4454baa8cc384811e0112024-11-21T06:02:20ZengElsevierNeuroscience Research0168-01022024-04-012013945How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?Xiyao Yu0Reona Yamaguchi1Tadashi Isa2Department of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, JapanInstitute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (WPI-ASHBi), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, JapanDepartment of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (WPI-ASHBi), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Correspondence to: Department of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.The nature of subjective conscious experience, which accompanies us throughout our waking lives, and how it is generated, remain elusive. One of the challenges in studying subjective experience is disentangling the brain activity related to the sensory stimulus processing and stimulus-guided behavior from those associated with subjective perception. Blindsight, a phenomenon characterized by the retained visual discrimination performance but impaired visual consciousness due to damage to the primary visual cortex, becomes a special entry point to address this question. However, to fully understand the underlying neural mechanism, relying on studies involving human patients alone is insufficient. In this paper, we tried to address this issue, by first introducing the well-known cases of blindsight, especially the reports on subjective experience in both human and monkey subjects. And then we described how the impaired visual awareness of blindsight monkeys has been discovered and further studied by specifically designed tasks, as verbal reporting is not possible for these animals. Our previous studies also demonstrated that many complex visually guided cognitive processes were still retained despite the impairment of visual awareness. Further investigation needs to be conducted to explore the relationship between visually guided behavior, visual awareness and brain activity in blindsight subjects.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010223001669BlindsightV1 lesionMonkeySubjective experienceVisual awarenessSaccade
spellingShingle Xiyao Yu
Reona Yamaguchi
Tadashi Isa
How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
Neuroscience Research
Blindsight
V1 lesion
Monkey
Subjective experience
Visual awareness
Saccade
title How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
title_full How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
title_fullStr How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
title_full_unstemmed How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
title_short How to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight?
title_sort how to study subjective experience in an animal model of blindsight
topic Blindsight
V1 lesion
Monkey
Subjective experience
Visual awareness
Saccade
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010223001669
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