What is salient in binocular rivalry

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What is salient in binocular rivalry

• Fumihiko Taya and Ken Mogi,
• Department of Physiology1, Osaka University
  Medical School
• Sony Computer Science Laboratory

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Abstract

• We studied what stimulus features count as
  salient in binocular rivalry.
• We found that motion is very salient and is a
  determining factor in the ocular dominance
  pattern in binocular rivalry.
• We arrive at a model of binocular rivalry
  involving three layers.

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Neural correlates with the ocular dominance
pattern in binocular rivalry

• Logothetis et al., 1989
• Leopold et al., 1996
• Kovacs et al., 1996
• Sheinberg et al., 1997
• Tononi et al., 1997
• Fries et al., 1997
• Lumer et al., 1998

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Studies on binocular rivalry

• Studies on binocular rivalry has been conducted
  in an all-or-none paradigm, neglecting the
  spatial heterogeneity of the dominance pattern.
• Here, we investigate the spatio-temporal
  structure of ocular dominance pattern in
  binocular rivalry.

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Method(1/2)
Left eye
Right eye
Indicator
Fixation point
Phase difference
Visual awareness
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Methods (2/2)

• Stimulus we used were
• Circles moving at a speed of 2.2 degrees/s
• Stationary circles
• We presented rivalrous images to each eyes
  (visual angle 11 degrees) with Crystal Eyes
  (StereoGraphics Corporation, Washington D.C.,
  US).
• Monitor FlexScan E67T (Eizo) at 150 frames/s.

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Visual awareness in binocular rivalry

• Both of the moving circles were always present in
  visual awareness
• Down to 0.3 degrees per second
• Up to 20 degrees per second
• Sometimes one or both of the stationary circles
  disappeared from visual awareness

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Change of visual awarenessmoving circles
Time
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Change of visual awarenessstationary circles
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Average number of circles seen in the moving and
stationary conditions
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Quantitative Analysis

• Subjects were requested to report the perceived
  color at the position of an indicator which
  flashed in several position on the screen.

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Results 180 degrees
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Results 72 degrees
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Results 0 degrees
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Results left eye
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Results right eye
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Summary of results

• The spatio-temporal dominance pattern was
  strongly influenced by the presence of moving
  circles.
• The visual system behaves as dynamical adaptive
  system to represent the salient features at any
  given psychological moment.

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Method
Left eye
Right eye
Indicator
Fixation point
Visual awareness
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Results the effective range of moving circles
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Results

• The effective range of moving circle was about
  2.2 degrees, namely the effect of salient
  features remained for about 1 second.
• The salient feature only had effect on the
  subsequent visual awareness.
• The prediction had no effect on determining the
  ocular dominance pattern.

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Change of visual awarenessInteractive operation
Time
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Result move circles voluntarily
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Three phenomenological layers
Visual Awareness
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Conclusion