Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3192, USA.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2012 Jan;24(1):246-59. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00121. Epub 2011 Aug 23.
During binocular rivalry, conflicting images presented to the two eyes compete for perceptual dominance, but the neural basis of this competition is disputed. In interocular switch rivalry, rival images periodically exchanged between the two eyes generate one of two types of perceptual alternation: (1) a fast, regular alternation between the images that is time-locked to the stimulus switches and has been proposed to arise from competition at lower levels of the visual processing hierarchy or (2) a slow, irregular alternation spanning multiple stimulus switches that has been associated with higher levels of the visual system. The existence of these two types of perceptual alternation has been influential in establishing the view that rivalry may be resolved at multiple hierarchical levels of the visual system. We varied the spatial, temporal, and luminance properties of interocular switch rivalry gratings and found, instead, an association between fast, regular perceptual alternations and processing by the magnocellular stream and between slow, irregular alternations and processing by the parvocellular stream. The magnocellular and parvocellular streams are two early visual pathways that are specialized for the processing of motion and form, respectively. These results provide a new framework for understanding the neural substrates of binocular rivalry that emphasizes the importance of parallel visual processing streams, and not only hierarchical organization, in the perceptual resolution of ambiguities in the visual environment.
在双眼竞争中，呈现给两只眼睛的冲突图像会争夺感知优势，但这种竞争的神经基础存在争议。在双眼转换竞争中，两只眼睛之间周期性地交换竞争图像会产生两种类型的感知交替之一：（1）与刺激转换同步的快速、规则的图像交替，据提议，这种交替源于视觉处理层次结构较低水平的竞争，或（2）跨越多个刺激转换的缓慢、不规则的交替，与视觉系统的较高水平有关。这两种类型的感知交替的存在对确立竞争可能在视觉系统的多个层次结构上得到解决的观点产生了影响。我们改变了双眼转换竞争光栅的空间、时间和亮度特性，结果发现，快速、规则的感知交替与大细胞流的处理有关，而缓慢、不规则的交替与小细胞流的处理有关。大细胞流和小细胞流是两个早期的视觉通路，分别专门用于处理运动和形状。这些结果为理解双眼竞争的神经基础提供了一个新的框架，强调了在视觉环境中感知解决歧义时并行视觉处理流的重要性，而不仅仅是层次结构组织。
