Adaptation to interocular difference

Abstract

Patterns in the two eyes' views that are not identical in hue or contrast often elicit an impression of luster, providing a cue for discriminating them from perfectly matched patterns. Here we ask whether the mechanism for detecting interocular differences (IDs) is adaptable. Our stimuli were horizontally oriented multispatial-frequency grating patterns that could be subject to varying degrees of ID through the introduction of interocular phase differences in the grating components. Subjects adapted to patterns that were either correlated, uncorrelated, monocular (one eye only), or anticorrelated. Following adaptation, thresholds for detecting IDs were measured using a staircase procedure. It was found that ID thresholds were elevated following adaptation to uncorrelated, monocular, and anticorrelated but not correlated patterns. Threshold elevation was found to be maximal when the orientations of the adaptor and test gratings were the same, and when their spatial frequencies were similar. The results support the existence of a specialized mechanism for detecting IDs, the most likely candidate being the binocular differencing channel proposed in previous studies.