The Independence of a Simple Visual-Motor Reaction from the Preconscious Component of Sensation during Backward Masking by Two-Color Stimuli

Abstract

The model of visual backward masking in its two-color modification is applicable in the study of the mechanisms of conjugation of the processes of sensory sensation formation and realization of sensorimotor reactions. The effect of the full (100 %) two-color backward masking is reliably implemented with the following values of its parameters: the duration of the test stimulus (red and green) is 0 ms, the stimulus masker (blue) is 45 ms, and the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) is 0.1 — 25 ms. In the range of SOA values from 25 to 35 ms, the efficiency of backward masking decreases to 14 %, and with an SOA of 40 ms, it completely disappears. The stimulus detection time (sDT) as part of a simple visual-motor reaction in the paradigm of the model of two-color backward masking does not depend on its effectiveness, the color of the test stimulus, the value of asynchrony in the range (0 — 40 ms), the duration of the stimulus-masker in the formation of a conscious light sensation. A comparative analysis of the stimulus detection time values under the conditions of full (100 %) backward masking and in its absence suggests that the mechanism of the two-color backward masking not associated with photoreceptors, but is implemented in the central parts of the visual analyzer.