Title Synchronous Information Presented in 40-hz Flicker Enhances Visual Feature Binding Figure Coding at 40 Hz Presented in 40 Hz Flicker Enhances Visual Feature Binding

Recent neurophysiological studies (e.g. Eckhorn et al. 1994; Engel et al., 1990; Gray & Singer, 1989; Gray et al., 1990; Kreiter & Singer, 1992) have encouraged speculation that the synchronization of spatially distributed neural assemblies (at around 40 Hz in the neocortex) is responsible for the ‘binding’ of discrete stimulus components into coherent ‘wholes’ during visual object perception (Crick & Koch, 1990; Eckhorn et al., 1990; Engel et al., 1992; von der Malsburg, 1981; Singer, 1993). Using a novel paradigm, we show specific figural priming under 40 Hz stimulus modulation conditions. Further, under these conditions, observers are neither aware of the prime’s existence, nor does the prime act as a stimulus-driven attentional cue. These findings provide the first psychophysical support for a theory of preattentive visual object coding, based upon an externally entrained and thereby synchronized 40 Hz feature binding mechanism. Figure Coding at 40 Hz 3