Binocular Summation Flashcards
What are the two competing theories of binocular combination (Sensory Fusion)
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Alternation or suppression theory - the monocular image reaching consciousness is alternated RT/LT
- Never a simultaneous binocular percept
- Monocular views mutually inhibit each other
- Occurs with dissimilar monuclar images (binocular rivalry)
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Fusion theory - similar images to right & left eye are attended to simultaneously
- 2 eyes images are processed simultaneously
- Occurs with similar monocular images
- As the rivalry build up rate is slow - we know fusion theory is TRUE
- Additionally, we know light & contrast incident on the 2 eyes are added together in the binocular percept
- Binocular thresholds* would be LOWER than monocular thresholds
- ex. luminance or contrast detection and perhaps acuity
Define Binocular summation & what are some examples?
- additivity of the information from each eye to yield binocular visual performance (exceeding monocular performance)
-
Example:
- VA, CS, CV, Light detection, Brightness matching, Reading, CFF, Reaction times etc
What are the different summation between two eyes?
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Neural summation - partial, complete, facilitation, inhibition
- Signal to noise ratio (SNR) - neural summation increases SNR
- Probability summation - benefit to two eyes even if they are independent of each other
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Neural summation and the impact on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)
- Signal correlated between right and left eye - sums
- Neural noise differs between the right and left eye and would largely FAIL to sum
- SNR improves by square root of the number of detectors
- ex 2 eyes = sqrt(2) = 4
- We can evaluate extent of summation by measuring visual tasks monocularly and binocularly (comparing)
- Luminance detection
- Visual acuity
- Contrast detection
- Complete binocular summation - binocular performance is sum of each eye’s monocular performance, i.e. neural summation
-
Partial binocular summation - incomplete summation of each eye’s visual performance
*
Explain the degrees of binocular summation?
- The degree of binocular interaction between the eyes is characterized by whether binocular performance on a task is
- greater than
- equal to
- or less than the performance of either eye alone (monocular performance)
- Binocular Facilitation: visual performance is better with both eyes than sum of each eye
- Binocular inhibition: when used together to the performance of one eye is degraded by the other eye, visual performance with both eyes is less than the sum of each eye
- No summation: Visual performance of two eyes are no better than one
Describe the first binocular summation experiment?
- Stimulus: Square Wave Flicker
- Independent flicker signals to right and left eye
- in phase signals (left)
- Out of phase signals (right)
Describe the Study on flicker detection, CFF and binocular summation
- Higher perceived amplitude and higher CFF with summation of in-phase signals
- Lower perceived amplitude and low CFF with summation of out-of-phase signals
- Degree of binocular summation depends on temporal frequency
Contrast sensitivity plot linear x-axis scale
- Binocular improvement over monocular constant from low to high frequency
- Factor of improvement = 1.4 (higher sensitivity)
- Equivalent to 40% improvement
T/F Flicker detection is the only visual function
False. It is NOT the only visual function
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Absolute light detection: thresholds are slightly lower
- but account for only partial summation
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Visual resolution: improves binocularly
- but only partial summation is noted
What are the two theories of binocular summation?
- The independence theory (Probability summation)
- Interaction theory (Summation theory)
Describe the probablity summation
- Independence theory - even if our eyes work pefectly independently we can expect lower thresholds under binocular conditions
- Left eye detects: 60% (0.6) threshold
- Right eye detects: 60% (0.6) threshold
- This form of probability summation is just one statistical model that may not accurately
- 0.84 probability of detecting a stimulus is 1.4X or 40% better than 0.60
- Other statistical models of prediction exist as well. None is accurate
Binocular summation vs probability summation
- Binocular summation occurs ONLY IF both eyes are stimulated within short interval
- Similarly, Binocular summations occurs ONLY IF both eyes stimulated within corresponding areas
Describe interaction theory (Summation theory)
- True binocular summation has been shown to occur for light flashes and grating stimuli
-
Interaction theory (vs independence theory)
- predicts an increase to sensitivity (decreased threshold) under binocular conditions greater than probability summation alone
Descibe neural summation
- Neural summation is convergence of monocular information in the visual system, into binocular pathways improves detection threshold under binocular conditions
-
Neural (binocular) summation: occurs under limited conditions
- Temporal synchrony (OD/OS) - <100ms
- Corresponding points (OD/OS) or points within panum’s area
- Similar stimuli (OD/OS)
- Strabismus, amblyopia, and anisometropia
- can prevent synchronous stimulation or stimulation within corresponding points & disrupt fusion and binocular summation
Describe the loss of binocular summation in infants
- Binocular vision problems may manifest as loss of binocular summation over a wide range of stimulus conditions
- Visually evoked potentials (VEP) can be used to evaluate binocular summation in young infants
- Losses of binocular summation in infants should be noted early, before binocular vision compromise
Is there still a benefit to having two eyes under SUPRATHRESHOLD conditions?
- Studies with increment thresholds, orientation discrimination tasks and grating stimuli reaction time suggest YES,
- but maybe less benefit than at threshold