Abstract
Using a dichoptic spatial phase combination paradigm that assesses the relative contribution that each eye makes to the binocular percept (ocular dominance), we have shown previously that 2.5 hours of patching, be it opaque or translucent, can result in a short-term enhancement of the patched eye’s contribution to binocularity. This suggests that it is differential pattern deprivation, rather than the differential luminance deprivation that is driving this ocular dominance change. Here we ask what aspects of the pattern stimulation are important for ocular dominance. Observers dichoptically viewed movies of 2-3 hrs duration in which the spatial information in one eye’s view had been altered (pattern deprivation). We measured each eye’s contribution to the binocular percept before and after movie viewing using the dichoptic spatial phase task. Scrambling the spatial phases in one eye’s view had no effect on ocular dominance, suggesting features constructed from phase-aligned components are unimportant in this regard. At the level at which these changes in dominance occurs only the Fourier amplitude spectrum is important. To verify this we show that graded changes to the magnitude of the amplitude spectrum result in graded changes in ocular dominance. To ascertain whether different parts of the amplitude spectrum are more important than others, we compared highpass with lowpass filtering and show that only the latter affects dominance. Finally, the ocular dominance change is not orientationally-dependent, suggesting the underlying mechanism is isotropic. Short-term changes in ocular dominance in adults can be obtained by altering the contrast of isotropic, high spatial frequency components seen by one eye.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015