Willpower and Conscious Percept: Volitional Switching in Binocular Rivalry

Willpower and Conscious Percept: Volitional Switching in Binocular Rivalry

When dissimilar images are presented to the left and right eyes, awareness switches spontaneously between the two images, such that one of the images is suppressed from awareness while the other is perceptually dominant. For over 170 years, it has been accepted that even though the periods of dominance are subject to attentional processes, we have no inherent control over perceptual switching. ...

A Neural Basis for Percept Stabilization in Binocular Rivalry

When the same visual input has conflicting interpretations, conscious perception can alternate spontaneously between each competing percept. Surprisingly, such bistable perception can be stabilized by intermittent stimulus removal, suggesting the existence of perceptual "memory" across interruptions in stimulation. The neural basis of such a process remains unknown. Here, we studied binocular r...

Investigating Audio-visual Interactions in Binocular Rivalry: Fate of the Suppressed Percept and Modulation of Volitional Control

Suppressed images selectively affect the dominant percept during binocular rivalry.

During binocular rivalry, perception alternates between dissimilar images that are presented dichoptically. It has been argued that perception during the dominance phase of rivalry is unaffected by the suppressed image. Recent evidence suggests, however, that the suppressed image does affect perception of the dominant image, yet the extent and nature of this interaction remain elusive. We hypot...

Duality in Binocular Rivalry: Distinct Sensitivity of Percept Sequence and Percept Duration to Imbalance between Monocular Stimuli

BACKGROUND Visual perception is usually stable and accurate. However, when the two eyes are simultaneously presented with conflicting stimuli, perception falls into a sequence of spontaneous alternations, switching between one stimulus and the other every few seconds. Known as binocular rivalry, this visual illusion decouples subjective experience from physical stimulation and provides a unique...