Mechanisms of percept-percept and image-percept integration in vision: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Previous research has shown that the detection of a visual target can be guided not only by the temporal integration of two percepts, but also by integrating a percept and an image held in working memory. Behavioral and event-related brain potential (ERP) measures were obtained in a target detection task that required temporal integration of 2 successively presented stimuli in the left or right hemifield. Task performance was good when both displays followed each other immediately (percept-percept integration) and when displays were separated by a 300- or 900-ms interval (image-percept integration), but was poor with intermediate interstimulus intervals. An enhanced posterior negativity at electrodes contralateral to the side of the target was observed for percept-percept and for image-percept integration, demonstrating that both are based on spatiotopic representations. However, this contralateral negativity emerged later and was more sustained on trials with long interstimulus intervals, indicating that image-percept integration is slower and involves a sustained activation of working memory.