Volume 2, Number 9, Article 4, Pages 618-626 doi:10.1167/2.9.4 http://journalofvision.org/2/9/4/ ISSN 1534-7362
V1 activity is reduced during binocular rivalry
Sang-Hun Lee
Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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Randolph Blake
Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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Abstract

During binocular rivalry, one of two incompatible monocular stimuli is erased from perceptual awareness for seconds at a time. To examine whether this “rivalry suppression” occurs in V1, we measured functional magnetic resonance imaging activity during binocular rivalry and compared it with those in the two reference conditions: one representing complete suppression and the other representing no suppression. We found that the amplitude of V1 activity during rivalry fell midway between those in the two reference conditions; the amount of V1 activity associated with the nondominant pattern was reduced by 48% to 77% during rivalry. The same pattern of results was obtained with meaningful rival targets (i.e., a human face and a house). In this work, using a different experimental protocol, we confirmed the findings of earlier imaging studies that neuronal events associated with binocular rivalry occur as early as V1. Furthermore, our findings extend those earlier findings by demonstrating robust neural suppression during binocular rivalry regardless of the stimulus complexity of the rivaling targets.

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History
Received January 18, 2002; published December 13, 2002
Citation
Lee, S.-H., & Blake, R. (2002). V1 activity is reduced during binocular rivalry. Journal of Vision, 2(9):4, 618-626, http://journalofvision.org/2/9/4/, doi:10.1167/2.9.4.
Keywords
binocular rivalry, functional imaging, visual awareness, visual suppression
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