Contour integration across depth

In order to investigate the extent of the local connections subserving contour integration across depth, we measured performance for detecting the continuity of a path of Gabor elements distributed in depth and embedded in a three-dimensional field of random background elements. The results show that performance cannot be explained in terms of monocular performance and that contour information is not limited to single disparity planes. Path detection does indeed involve the integration of information across different, very disparate depth planes. The rules which emerge are in general similar to that already described in the two-dimensional case in as far as orientation and disparity are important. Unlike the two-dimensional case, three-dimensional integration operates over relatively large three-dimensional distances.