Capture of Visual Direction: an Unexpected Phenomenon in Binocular Vision

Binocular perception of visual direction is based on laws which were formulated more than 100 years ago. These laws govern the directions in which human beings perceive objects visible to both eyes (binocular objects) and objects visible to only one eye (monocular objects). We report here that the l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vision research (Oxford) 1997-05, Vol.37 (9), p.1193-1196
Main Authors: ERKELENS, CASPER J, van EE, RAYMOND
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Binocular visual direction
Biological and medical sciences
Convergence, Ocular
Cyclopean vision
Eye Movements
Fixation, Ocular
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Monocular occlusion
Perception
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Space life sciences
Space Perception - physiology
Vision
Vision, Binocular - physiology
Vision, Monocular - physiology
Visual Fields
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Summary:Binocular perception of visual direction is based on laws which were formulated more than 100 years ago. These laws govern the directions in which human beings perceive objects visible to both eyes (binocular objects) and objects visible to only one eye (monocular objects). We report here that the laws do not hold for monocular objects adjacent to binocular objects. The perceived directions of these monocular objects are captured by those of nearby binocular objects. Capture of binocular visual direction is an unexpected phenomenon because it refutes the generally accepted notion that a particular retinal location gives rise to a particular subjective visual direction. The practical consequence is that the subjective techniques for measuring eye position which are widely used in fundamental research and clinical practice are unreliable if they are used in densely structured stimuli. We suggest that capture results from a mechanism of lateral interaction between adjacent visual directions. This mechanism ensures that, despite eye movements, objects have the same spatial order in monocular and binocular vision. This conservation of spatial order also explains why retinal blind spots are not manifest in binocular vision. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSN:0042-6989
1878-5646
DOI:10.1016/S0042-6989(96)00265-9