Temporal aspects of spatial interactions affecting stereo-matching solutions

Stereo-matching solutions minimize disparity relative to the horopter (minimum-absolute-disparity or MAD), and differences in disparity between adjacent features (minimum-relative-disparity or MRD). When placed in conflict, spatial proximity promotes MRD over MAD solutions. How does temporal proximity of neighboring features affect strength of these spatial interactions? We quantified the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) over which an unambiguous disparity pattern influenced stereo-matches for patterns with several possible solutions. Likelihood of MRD decreased as ISI increased (48.9 ms time constant) and increased as contrast was reduced for short ISIs, suggesting that monocular persistence (temporal impulse response) underlies the temporal interaction.