Summary
2011 International Symposium on Nonlinear Theory and Its Applications
2011
Session Number:A1L-E
Session:
Number:A1L-E4
Binocular Rivalry: A Key Phenomenon to understand Temporal Dynamics of Conscious Perception
Tetsuo Kobayashi,
pp.80-83
Publication Date:2011/9/4
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
When dissimilar images are presented to corresponding retinal areas of each eye, fusion fails and brief intermittent periods of exclusive visibility of only one of the images is experienced. This is known as binocular rivalry. To address how and what regions of the brain is involved in binocular rivalry, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and compared brain activities during binocular rivalry, stereopsis and fusion. Significant increases in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals were observed along the dorsal visual pathway and V4 in the occipital area, in the parietal area adjacent to the intraparietal sulcus and in the prefrontal area both in binocular rivalry and stereopsis conditions compared with those in a fusion condition. On the other hand, no significant difference was found between BOLD signals in binocular rivalry and stereopsis conditions. Furthermore, right hemisphere dominance was observed both in binocular rivalry and stereopsis conditions. These findings suggest that a distributed network of brain activities in the extrastriate, parietal and prefrontal cortical areas dominantly in the right hemisphere is commonly associated with both binocular rivalry and stereopsis.