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A physiological model of binocular rivalry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

T. J. Mueller
T. J. Mueller
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
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Abstract

This paper presents a modified reciprocal inhibition model for the temporal dynamics of binocular rivalry. The model is based on neurophysiological mechanisms and is derived from human psychophysical data. A simple reciprocal inhibition oscillator may be described with a set of four coupled differential equations with a neurophysiological interpretation. However, such a circuit does not account for some aspects of the temporal behavior of binocular rivalry, including the effects of contrast change on alternation rate and on the magnitudes of changes in duration of the suppressed and dominant phases. To better account for these phenomena, the equations and their simulation are modified to include three new components: (1) presynaptic inhibition of the reciprocal inhibition by the input, (2) the motor delays that occur when a human observer tracks rivalry and (3) a minimum threshold for each neuron's state variable. The result is a much improved fit to psychophysically-obtained data on the temporal behavior of binocular rivalry. Finally, the model is incorporated into a larger model to suggest how rivalry might occur in a network that usually exhibits binocular fusion.

Keywords

Binocular rivalryNetworkModelVisual cortexReciprocal inhibition
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 63 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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