Adaptation changes stereoscopic depth selectivity in visual cortex.

Exposure to specific visual stimuli causes a reduction in sensitivity to similar subsequent stimulation. This adaptation effect is observed behaviorally and for neurons in the primary visual cortex. Here, we explore the effects of adaptation on neurons that encode binocular depth discrimination in the cat's primary visual cortex. Our results show that neuronal preference for binocular depth is altered selectively with appropriate adaptation. At the preferred depth, adaptation causes substantial suppression of subsequent responses. Near the preferred depth, the same procedure causes a shift in depth preference. At the null depth, adaptation has little effect on binocular depth coding. These results demonstrate that prior exposure can change the depth selectivity of binocular neurons. The findings are relevant to the theoretical treatment of binocular depth processing. Specifically, the prevailing notion of binocular depth encoding based on the energy model requires modification.