Binocular Rivalry From Invisible Pattern

Binocular rivalry arises when incompatible images are presented one to each eye. If the dichoptic patterns are invisible thus perceptually identical between eyes, does rivalry competition still occur?The current study tested whether binocular rivalry can be induced from invisible spatial patterns. When counter-phase flickering at 30 Hz, invisible chromatic gratings activate orientation-selective neurons in the early visual cortex, demonstrated by a significant tilt aftereffect and orientation-selective adaptation.Then, a monocularly presented invisible chromatic grating, compared to perceptually matched uniform stimuli, enhanced the rivalry competition with a low contrast visible grating presented to the fellow eye.Furthermore, switching from a uniform field to an invisible chromatic grating produced interocular suppression at about 200 ms following the onset of the invisible grating.These results indicate that even without explicit interocular conflict, thus with minimal engagement of high-level cortex and related top-down feedback modulations, invisible patterns could initiate rivalry competition in the primary visual cortex.