We think about the optimal presentation time of the mask and wonder whether the neural processing might be overwritten with the processing of the mask when we choose a long presentation time. Has someone got experience with that or is aware of any publications? Thanks
You may consult the book "Visual Masking" by Breitmeyer & Ögmen.
A paper which might be interesting: http://www.cns.nyu.edu/events/vjclub/archive/Macknik_Livingstone.pdf
yes. i think so.
this might be useful: Cortical correlate of pattern backward masking.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7777553
The overwriting idea is too simple. Once a stimulus signal is in the system, it can go down multiple paths, and a subsequent mask signal will not catch up with it. This is probably the mechanism behind masked priming and the reason why primed motor activation can be independent of masking (Vorberg et al., 2003). But overwriting is still possible in the sense that the mask can replace the original stimulus in visual awareness, e.g., by interrupting recursive processing (see TMS studies of V1 stimulation). In addition, the mask is a new bottom-up signal that starts being processed in its own right. However, the popular old idea that the mask can "stop" processing of the masked stimulus is certainly wrong, because by the time the mask arrives at V1 the original signal can already be processed elsewhere.
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