Increment-threshold spectral sensitivity functions were determined for normal observers during binocular rivalry and for esotropic observers during strabismic suppression and under viewing conditions that normally induce binocular rivalry. Depending on the spatial and temporal properties of the test stimulus, the normal observers exhibited a wavelength-specific loss in sensitivity during the su...

When the eyes view images that are sufficiently different to prevent binocular fusion, binocular rivalry occurs and the images are seen sequentially in a stochastic alternation. Here we examine whether temporal frequency differences will trigger binocular rivalry by presenting two dynamic random-pixel arrays that are spatially matched but which modulate temporally at two different rates. We fou...

When the corresponding retinal locations in the two eyes are presented with incompatible images, a stable percept gives way to perceptual alternations in which the two images compete for perceptual dominance. As perceptual experience evolves dynamically under constant external inputs, binocular rivalry has been used for studying intrinsic cortical computations and for understanding how the brai...

Under natural viewing conditions, a single depthful percept of the world is consciously seen. When dissimilar images are presented to corresponding regions of the two eyes, binocular rivalry may occur, during which the brain consciously perceives alternating percepts through time. How do the same brain mechanisms that generate a single depthful percept of the world also cause perceptual bistabi...

Binocular rivalry was studied using plaids which were the sum of orthogonal diagonal gratings plus identical vertical gratings in the two eyes. The rivalry alternations sped up as the spatial frequency difference between the vertical and diagonal gratings was increased above about one octave, but slowed down for smaller differences. The interaction between depth and rivalry was studied using si...

Interocular-switch rivalry (also known as stimulus rivalry) is a kind of binocular rivalry in which two rivalrous images are swapped between the eyes several times a second. The result is stable periods of one image and then the other, with stable intervals that span many eye swaps (Logothetis, Leopold, & Sheinberg, 1996). Previous work used this close kin of binocular rivalry with rivalrous fo...

Binocular rivalry occurs when different images are presented one to each eye: the images are visible only alternately. Monocular rivalry occurs when different images are presented both to the same eye: the clarity of the images fluctuates alternately. Could both sorts of rivalry reflect the operation of a general visual mechanism for dealing with perceptual ambiguity? We report four experiments...

Visual rivalry is thought to be a distributed process that simultaneously takes place at multiple levels in the visual processing hierarchy. Also, the different types of rivalry, such as binocular and monocular rivalry, are thought to engage shared underlying mechanisms. We hypothesized that the amount of perceptual suppression during rivalry as measured by the total duration of fully exclusive...

BACKGROUND The rate of binocular rivalry has been reported to be slower in subjects with bipolar disorder than in controls when tested with drifting, vertical and horizontal gratings of high spatial frequency. METHOD Here we assess the rate of binocular rivalry with stationary, vertical and horizontal gratings of low spatial frequency in 30 subjects with bipolar disorder, 30 age- and sex-matc...

Perceptual rivalry is an oscillation of conscious experience that takes place despite univarying. if ambiguous, sensory input. Much current interest is focused on the controversy over the neural site of binocular rivalry, a variety of perceptual rivalry for which a number of different cortical regions have been implicated. Debate continues over the relative role of higher levels of processing c...