Binocular matching of dissimilar features in phantom stereopsis

Previously we have demonstrated that quantitative depth perception can be elicited from a stereogram that lacks contrast defined binocular corresponding elements (phantom stereopsis). In this report, we use computer simulation to demonstrate that it is biologically plausible for some known binocular cortical cell types to combine non-conventional matching features. Therefore, binocular matching processes based on the responses of these cells could be a conventional one, namely, looking for similar response patterns in the two eyes. While at cell types we simulated gave identical disparity outputs to the conventional stereogram, they responded differently to the phantom stereogram. Processes other than low-level disparity detectors may have to be invoked in order to achieve a unique depth solution.