DEVELOPMENT OF FORM, RIVALRY AND BINOCULARITY

描述(改编自申请人的摘要)：当截然不同的图像 呈现在两只眼睛面前，它们不会同时被看到，相反，它们 在感知优势上交替，这一现象被称为竞争。竞争是 通常被认为是不同物种之间竞争性互动的结果 单眼表征位于视觉加工的早期阶段。这 最近，新的神经生理学数据表明，这种观点受到了挑战 竞争性刺激对细胞反应的调制只发生在 双眼细胞--尤其是早期视觉区域之外的细胞。新的 心理物理演示和几个旧的发现也是 与旧的观点不一致，认为竞争是一种更高层次的 发生在双目会聚部位之后的过程。我们已经开发出 一种客观的竞争电生理测量方法，与 关于成年人相互竞争的主观报告。这项技术不同于以前的技术 在这一点上，仅根据大脑的电活动就可以检测到竞争。我们 已经将这项技术应用于5至15岁的正常发育婴儿 几个月大了，没有找到任何竞争交替的证据。 使用非竞争刺激的对照实验表明，婴儿有 用于测试竞争的时空条件下的双目相互作用。 本项目的目的是研究 使用一种新的电生理学方法的发育背景。如果竞争 和初级双目互动有明显不同的发展 序列，如初步数据所示，将给予支持 将竞争视为一种更高层次的感知现象的新观点。如果在另一端 另一方面，双目机构的发展被认为是紧密联系的 和竞争，传统观点将得到支持。建议数 实验对新的或传统的观点是不可知的，并且 被设计成有用的，无论结果如何。此外，一个相当大的 方向域相互作用的其他有趣数据量 还将获得有助于理解的双目视觉 双目视觉和形体的正常发育序列 远见，独立于他们之间的竞争关系的发展。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): When very different images are presented to the two eyes, they are not seen simultaneously, rather they alternate in perceptual dominance, a phenomenon known as rivalry. Rivalry is often considered to be the result of competitive interactions between separate monocular representations located at an early stage of visual processing. This view has been challenged recently by new neurophysiological data indicating that modulation of cell responses by rivalrous stimuli occurs exclusively in binocular cells - particularly those outside of early visual areas. New psychophysical demonstrations and rediscovery of several old ones are also incompatible with older views and suggest that rivalry is a higher-order process occurring after the site of binocular convergence. We have developed an objective electrophysiological measure of rivalry that correlates well with subjective reports of rivalry in adults. The technique differs from previous ones in that rivalry can be detected solely on the basis of brain electrical activity. We have applied this technique in normally developing infants between 5 and 15 months of age and have failed to find any evidence of rivalry alternation. Control experiments with non-rivalrous stimuli indicate that the infants have binocular interactions under the spatio-temporal conditions used to test rivalry. The purpose of this project is to examine this apparent disassociation within a developmental context using a new electrophysiological approach. If rivalry and elementary binocular interactions have distinctly different developmental sequences, as suggested by preliminary data, support will be give to the new view of rivalry as a higher-order perceptual phenomenon. If on the other hand, tight linkage is seen between the development of binocular mechanisms and rivalry, support will be given to the traditional view. The proposed experiments are agnostic regarding the new or traditional views and are designed to be useful, regardless of their outcome. Moreover, a substantial amount of otherwise interesting data on orientation-domain interactions and binocularity will also be obtained that will be helpful for understanding the normal developmental sequences of both binocular vision and form vision, independent of their relationship to the development of rivalry.