Abstract
When dissimilar images are presented to the two eyes, they compete for perceptual dominance so that each image is visible in turn for a few seconds while the other is suppressed. Such binocular rivalry is associated with relative suppression of local, eye-based representations1,2,3,4 that can also be modulated by high-level influences such as perceptual grouping3,5,6. However, it is currently unclear how early in visual processing the suppression of eye-based signals can occur. Here we use high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with a new binocular rivalry stimulus to show that signals recorded from the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) exhibit eye-specific suppression during rivalry. Regions of the LGN that show strong eye-preference independently show strongly reduced activity during binocular rivalry when the stimulus presented in their preferred eye is perceptually suppressed. The human LGN is thus the earliest stage of visual processing that reflects eye-specific dominance and suppression.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust. We thank J. Driver and P. Sterzer for comments, and E. Freeman for advice regarding the stimuli. Author Contributions J.-D.H. and G.R. conceived the experiment, R.D. wrote the pulse sequence and J.-D.H. carried out the experiment and data analysis. G.R., J.-D.H. and R.D. co-wrote the paper.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Figure S1
Distribution of ocular biases in LGN and V1 under monocular viewing conditions. (DOC 60 kb)
Supplementary Figure S2
Event-related BOLD-fMRI signal changes time-locked to rivalry transitions for individual subjects. (DOC 113 kb)
Supplementary Figure S3
Results of control experiment with monocular stimulation. (DOC 42 kb)
Supplementary Figure S4
Correlation between percept-preference and eye-selectivity. (DOC 64 kb)
Supplementary Methods
Additional description of Methods used in this study that could not be included in the main text. (DOC 30 kb)
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Haynes, JD., Deichmann, R. & Rees, G. Eye-specific effects of binocular rivalry in the human lateral geniculate nucleus. Nature 438, 496–499 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04169
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04169
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