Fixation disparity vs. binocular fixation misalignment

Conventional fixation disparity was compared with the corresponding foveal fixation misalignment measured by a recently developed method based on the effect of retinal eccentricity on the width of the border enhancement band. Unlike procedures using binocular nonius alignment, the method is not subject to adaptive changes in perceived direction. Forced convergence and divergence stimulation served as the independent variable. It was found that conventional fixation disparity represents only a small, constant fraction of the misalignment through the greater portion of the vergence range. However, when the misalignment is restricted to a small, central portion of the foveola, this relation changes drastically, and the fixation disparity can then be much larger than the fixation misalignment. During perfect fixation alignment of the foveal centers, there is always a significant amount of fixation disparity present. It is suggested that the large differences between fixation disparity and fixation misalignment are due to a fundamental, perceptual mechanism that is always at work during binocular vision, changing the relation between retinal location and perceived visual direction.