Experimental setup for research on binocular rivalry

All research in this proposal will be in the area of Experimental Psychology. .Vision science is filled with examples showing that under certain conditions the brain ‘chooses’ the visual input that reaches awareness while other parts of the visual scene do not lead to awareness; they are perceptually suppressed. Identifying the mechanisms that cause such perceptual suppression provides crucial information about the mechanisms behind conscious visual experience. During my Pegasus Marie Curie fellowship, I am investigating the mechanisms underlying perceptual suppression. The project mainly focuses on suppression that results from binocular rivalry, so-called binocular suppression. Binocular rivalry occurs when different, incompatible information is presented at the same location to the left and right eye. Because the brain is unable to integrate this incompatible information, competition occurs, resulting in suppression of one of the images. This project  ontains a series of studies that will dissociate the different views, which will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the role of different suggested mechanisms underlying perceptual suppression. In this application, we would like to apply for an experimental set-up that combines stereoscopic methods with eye tracking. The combination of these techniques is  crucial for dissociating adaptation-based processes from effects of interocular and interstimulus inhibition by allowing access to the subjects’ viewing direction at different time points.