Human visual processing oscillates: Evidence from a classification image technique

Recent investigations have proposed that visual information may be sampled in a discrete manner, similarly to the snapshots of a camera, but this hypothesis remains controversial. Moreover, assuming a discrete sampling of information, the properties of this sampling—for instance, the frequency at which it operates, and how it synchronizes with the environment—still need to be clarified. We systematically modulated the signal-to-noise ratio of faces through time and examined how it impacted face identification performance. Altogether, our results support the hypothesis of discrete sampling. Furthermore, they suggest that this mechanism may operate at a rate of about 10–15 Hz and that it is synchronized with the onset of the stimulus.