Neural bases of binocular rivalry.
During binocular rivalry, conflicting monocular images compete for access to consciousness in a stochastic, dynamical fashion. Recent human neuroimaging and psychophysical studies suggest that rivalry entails competitive interactions at multiple neural sites, including sites that retain eye-selective information. Rivalry greatly suppresses activity in the ventral pathway and attenuates visual adaptation to form and motion; nonetheless, some information about the suppressed stimulus reaches higher brain areas. Although rivalry depends on low-level inhibitory interactions, high-level excitatory influences promoting perceptual grouping and selective attention can extend the local dominance of a stimulus over space and time. Inhibitory and excitatory circuits considered within a hybrid model might account for the paradoxical properties of binocular rivalry and provide insights into the neural bases of visual awareness itself.
Tong
Frank
F
Psychology Department, 301 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA. frank.tong@vanderbilt.edu
Meng
Ming
M
Blake
Randolph
R
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D015357:Vision Disparity / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*