Abstract
Central vision is so powerful that it interferes with visual processing or reconstructs perception in peripheral vision. Nevertheless, it is possible that the peripheral vision also shapes the central vision. To test this possibility, we manipulated congruency between central stimuli and peripheral context, by presenting multiple stimuli identical to either of the two rivaling central stimuli in the periphery. Thus, a central stimulus in one eye was congruent to the peripheral context and the other in the opposite eye was incongruent. During a trial, the peripheral context changed occasionally depending on the current percept of the central rivaling stimuli. Using oriented Gabors, we first observed that the central stimulus incongruent to the peripheral context was more dominant than the congruent one, consistent with the previous studies. In addition, central perception was influenced by the change in the periphery. When the currently perceived congruent central stimulus became incongruent due to the change of the peripheral context, dominance duration became longer. The opposite trend was found when the currently perceived incongruent central stimulus became congruent. We observed the same results using shapes (circles or triangles) as well. Furthermore, the patterns of results were consistent when peripheral contexts were defined at the global level by varying the proportion of the two central stimuli being presented in the periphery. When the currently perceived central stimulus was (or became) incongruent to a large portion of peripheral stimuli, its dominance duration became longer. Finally, when the central stimuli swapped between eyes, which is known to induce the immediate change of perception, the incongruent central stimulus after the swap was perceived longer than a congruent one, although the overall dominance durations after the swap were shorter than before the swap. In sum, our results suggest that peripheral contexts modulate central vision at multiple levels of visual processing.