Neural Dynamics during Binocular Rivalry: Indications from Human Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

When two sufficiently different stimuli are presented to each eye, perception alternates between them. This binocular rivalry is conceived as a competition for representation in the single stream of visual consciousness. The magnocellu-lar (M) and parvocellular (P) pathways, originating in the retina, encode disparate information, but their potentially dif-ferent contributions to binocular rivalry have not been determined. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), where the M and P neurons are segregated into layers receiving input from a single eye. We had three participants (one male, two females) and used achromatic stimuli to avoid contributions from color opponent neurons that may have confounded previous studies. We ob-served activity in the eye-specific regions of LGN correlated with perception, with similar magnitudes during rivalry or physical stimuli alternations, also similar in the M and P regions. These results suggest that LGN activity reflects our perceptions during binocular rivalry and is not simply an artifact of color opponency. Further, perception appears to be a in the LGN, not limited to a information channel.

Automated summary

Perception alternates between two different stimuli presented to each eye in binocular rivalry. The study found that activity in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is correlated with perception during binocular rivalry, suggesting that perception occurs in the LGN and is not limited to a single information channel.