Progressive changes in binocular perception from stereopsis to rivalry.

Introduction: The binocular system provides a stereoscopic view from slightly different retinal images and produces perceptual alternations, namely, binocular rivalry, from significantly different retinal images. When we observe a stereogram in which the stimulus configurations induce stereopsis and rivalry simultaneously, the binocular system prefers stereopsis to rivalry. However, changes in visual perception are yet to be investigated by parametrically manipulating the components of a stereogram.

Methods: We examined stereopsis preferences in stereograms with various horizontal disparities. The stereograms of our paradigms included horizontal and vertical bars in one eye and a vertical bar alone in the other. Under experimental conditions, the vertical bar superimposed on the horizontal bar varied its position relative to the opposite vertical bar: range of horizontal disparity, 0.0' to 42.3'. The superimposed vertical bar was absent under the control condition. Observers were instructed to indicate the disappearance of monocular horizontal bars, that is, targets, from their perception during the 30-s trials.

Results: The total disappearance duration decreased under experimental conditions compared with that under control conditions, and it gradually increased with an increase in the disparity of the stereoscopic vertical bars.

Discussion: These results indicate that the disparity in the stereoscopic components biases binocular perception away from the rivalry between the vertical and horizontal bars toward the stereopsis of the vertical bars. Furthermore, the disappearance duration showed a unimodal and asymmetric distribution across all disparity conditions. This suggests that rivalry processing occurs in parallel when stereopsis is dominant. We found that stereopsis preference is an outcome of binocular perception selection biased by disparity.