Ernst Mach and the episode of the monocular depth sensations

Although Ernst Mach is widely recognized in psychology for his discovery of the effects of lateral inhibition in the retina ("Mach Bands"), his contributions to the theory of depth perception are not as well known. Mach proposed that steady luminance gradients triggered sensations of depth. He also expanded on Ewald Hering's hypothesis of "monocular depth sensations," arguing that they were subject to the same principle of lateral inhibition as light sensations were. Even after Hermann von Helmholtz's attack on Hering in 1866, Mach continued to develop theories involving the monocular depth sensations, proposing an explanation of perspective drawings in which the mutually inhibiting depth sensations scaled to a mean depth. Mach also contemplated a theory of stereopsis in which monocular depth perception played the primary role.