Abstract
Several studies have reported that the function of binocular fusion starts at 2-3 month of age (Braddick et al., 1980; Petrig et al., 1981; Skarf et al., 1993) and the sensitivity to horizontal disparity emerges around 3–4 months of age (Birch, 1993; Kavšek, 2013). However, little is known about when binocular suppression emerges. The present study evaluated the development of binocular suppression in infants by using continuous flash suppression (CFS, Tsuchiya & Koch, 2006). In our experiment, one eye of infants presented with a static face image at one side of the screen, while another eye is presented with a series of rapidly changing Mondrian patterns in full screen. Adult observers confirmed that the static face image was consciously repressed by the changing Mondrian patterns. If the binocular suppression has functioned, the infant would not perceive the face as adults, and show no preference in the experiment. However, if the infant have not acquired binocular suppression, they would perceive the face and the Mondrian patterns at the same time, so that these infant would prefer to look at the side where the face was presented. The results showed that infants aged 2-3 months, but not 4-5 months, preferred the face. These results indicated that the immature binocular visual system may perceive different images from different eyes simultaneously, and the infant may lose this ability after establishing binocular suppression at 4-5 months of age.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016