John Benjamins Publishing Company
The neuron doctrine of binocular rivalry
Abstract
Ever since Horace Barlow (1972) proposed his neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology, the holy grail for neurophysiologists has been to find individual neurons or groups of neurons whose firing correlates with specific percepts or even a state of mind or consciousness. Binocular rivalry is a particularly attractive paradigm for this approach because a stable visual stimulus causes an ever-changing subjective perceptual experience. The publication of Blake’s neural theory of binocular rivalry (Blake, 1989) inspired numerous attempts to identify neurons in various areas along the central visual pathways whose firing rate might signal dominance or suppression. Collectively these studies have shown that depending on the type of stimulus, rivalry is resolved at both lower and higher levels in the visual system.
Abstract
Ever since Horace Barlow (1972) proposed his neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology, the holy grail for neurophysiologists has been to find individual neurons or groups of neurons whose firing correlates with specific percepts or even a state of mind or consciousness. Binocular rivalry is a particularly attractive paradigm for this approach because a stable visual stimulus causes an ever-changing subjective perceptual experience. The publication of Blake’s neural theory of binocular rivalry (Blake, 1989) inspired numerous attempts to identify neurons in various areas along the central visual pathways whose firing rate might signal dominance or suppression. Collectively these studies have shown that depending on the type of stimulus, rivalry is resolved at both lower and higher levels in the visual system.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Visual consciousness and binocular rivalry 1
- Constituents, organization and processes of the human brain 15
- Overview of visual system structure and function 37
- Early views on binocular rivalry 77
- Psychophysics of binocular rivalry 109
- Investigating the structure and function of the brain 141
- The neuron doctrine of binocular rivalry 167
- Functional neuroimaging of binocular rivalry 187
- Binocular rivalry, brain stimulation and bipolar disorder 211
- High-level modulations of binocular rivalry 253
- Binocular rivalry 281
- The future of binocular rivalry research 305
- Index 333
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The stereoscopic viewer mentioned in this volume can be bought at http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/svn-tmp.html
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Visual consciousness and binocular rivalry 1
- Constituents, organization and processes of the human brain 15
- Overview of visual system structure and function 37
- Early views on binocular rivalry 77
- Psychophysics of binocular rivalry 109
- Investigating the structure and function of the brain 141
- The neuron doctrine of binocular rivalry 167
- Functional neuroimaging of binocular rivalry 187
- Binocular rivalry, brain stimulation and bipolar disorder 211
- High-level modulations of binocular rivalry 253
- Binocular rivalry 281
- The future of binocular rivalry research 305
- Index 333
-
The stereoscopic viewer mentioned in this volume can be bought at http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/svn-tmp.html
