Optokinetic nystagmus confirms multistable rivalry between four discrete overlapping motion stimuli
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1
Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Australia
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2
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Evidence for multistable binocular rivalry suggests that perceptual competition occurs between complete percepts rather than low-level, local representations (Diaz-Caneja, 1928, Suzuki & Grabowecky, 2002). However, most previous multistable binocular rivalry studies have used images for which there are only two conflicting stimuli in any one retinal location. Others have demonstrated four-way binocular rivalry between dichoptically presented sets of drifting dots (Crewther & Panayiotou, 2005, Conference Presentation); however these findings were based on subjective-perceptual reports alone. Here, we verified that observers experience competition between four discrete motion percepts by using eye tracking to obtain an objective, optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) based measure of the perceptually dominant motion direction. Observers viewed a circular patch through alternating-frame shutter glasses, with red upwards drifting dots and green downward drifting dots to one eye, and red leftward drifting dots and green rightward drifting dots to the other eye. Each of the four drifting motions was set to 90% coherence. Participants experienced multistable perceptual alternations between the four motions, such that one motion was perceptually dominant, while the others were either absent or appeared to be in the background. Each of the four motions achieved dominance on roughly equal proportions of perceptual switches and median dominance durations were similar across the motion directions. As expected, there was strong agreement between the OKN and key-press measures of perceptual dominance. These findings provide objective evidence that more than two discrete stimuli existing in one point in space can compete individually for awareness, constraining possible theories.
References
Diaz-Caneja (1928) Sur l'alternance binoculaire. Annales d'Oculistique
Suzuki, Grabowecky (2002) Evidence for perceptual "Trapping" and adaptation in multistable binocular rivalry. Neuron
Keywords:
Binocular Rivalry,
optokinetic nystagmus,
perceptual dynamics,
multidirectional OKN,
multistable rivalry
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Hugrass
L,
Crewther
D,
Bell
I,
Parkes
L,
Sumner
P,
Walsh
A and
Reynolds
M
(2015). Optokinetic nystagmus confirms multistable rivalry between four discrete overlapping motion stimuli.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00114
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Laila Hugrass, Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Melbourne, Australia, lhugrass@swin.edu.au
Prof. David Crewther, Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Melbourne, Australia, dcrewther@swin.edu.au