Image-based and eye-based influences on binocular rivalry have similar spatial profiles

Area of Science:

• Visual perception
• Neuroscience
• Cognitive science

Background:

• Binocular rivalry involves alternating perception between mismatched images presented to each eye.
• Integration of image parts across eyes during rivalry is less common than same-eye integration, suggesting early visual processing.
• Recent evidence points to later processing stages influencing rivalry and cross-eye integration, driven by image features rather than eye of origin.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the spatial extent of image-based grouping versus eye-of-origin grouping during binocular rivalry.
• To determine if image-based integration expands with increasing interimage-part distance (IIPD) compared to eye-based integration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized rival images with two distinct parts, systematically varying the interimage-part distance (IIPD).
• Assessed the relative contributions of eye of origin and image features (continuity, color) to spatial integration across increasing IIPDs.

Main Results:

• Contrary to the hypothesis, the contributions of both eye of origin and image features to grouping remained constant across varying IIPDs.
• Image-based grouping demonstrated similar spatial constraints to monocular, eye-based grouping.

Conclusions:

• Both eye-based and image-based grouping during binocular rivalry appear to be constrained by similarly sized receptive fields.
• Spatial extent does not differentiate the mechanisms of eye-based versus image-based grouping in rivalry.