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Published 2005 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Perceptual alternation induced by visual transients

Abstract

When our visual system is confronted with ambiguous stimuli, the perceptual interpretation spontaneously alternates between the competing incompatible interpretations. The timing of such perceptual alternations is highly stochastic and the underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. We show that perceptual alternations can be triggered by a transient stimulus presented nearby. The induction was tested for four types of bistable stimuli: structure-from-motion, binocular rivalry, Necker cube, and ambiguous apparent motion. While underlying mechanisms may vary among them, a transient flash induced time-locked perceptual alternations in all cases. The effect showed a dependence on the adaptation to the dominant percept prior to the presentation of a flash. These perceptual alternations show many similarities to perceptual disappearances induced by transient stimuli (Kanai and Kamitani, 2003 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 15 664 – 672; Moradi and Shimojo, 2004 Vision Research 44 449 – 460). Mechanisms linking these two transient-induced phenomena are discussed.

Additional Information

c2005 a Pion publication. Received 24 March 2004, in revised form 2 October 2004. We thank Masataka Watanabe, Daw-An Wu, Melanie Wilke, Chris Paffen, and Constanze Hofstotter for helpful discussions, and Mark Changizi and Maarten van der Smagt for comments on a previous version of the manuscript. RK is funded by a grant from the Helmholtz Institute and FV by a grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-Pionier). FM is supported by a fellowship from Caltech.

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Created:
September 15, 2023
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