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  • Review Article
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Binocular depth perception and the cerebral cortex

Key Points

  • Humans and some other animals use their two eyes in coordination to support binocular depth perception. The left and right eyes obtain images of the visual scene from slightly different viewpoints, leading to small differences between the left and right images called binocular disparities.

  • Measurement of the tuning functions of neurons in the visual cortex for disparity gives important information about how the visual stimulus influences the firing of neurons but does little to reveal the roles of different neurons in binocular depth perception.

  • Known features of binocular stereoscopic depth perception can be used to set up tests of the role of individual neurons and individual cortical areas.

  • One early hypothesis was that the dorsal visual cortical pathways are pre-eminently responsible for binocular depth perception. Other views have assigned different roles to the dorsal and ventral streams.

  • Neurons outside the primary visual cortex (V1) respond consistently to relative disparity. Neurons in both dorsal and ventral extrastriate visual areas respond to relative disparity.

  • It is proposed that dorsal areas are predominantly involved in processing extended visual surfaces and resolving depth structure during self-movement, whereas ventral visual areas process relative disparity to support the analysis of the three-dimensional shape of objects.

  • Binocular anticorrelation can be used to map the role of different sites in the visual cortex in the generation of binocular depth perception.

  • Dorsal visual areas appear to use a computational strategy based on a simple algorithm that approximately measures the cross-correlation between image regions on the left and right eyes. Ventral visual areas appear to use a more sophisticated algorithm that makes point-for-point matches between specific features on the left and right retinas.

  • Binocular depth perception has been recently studied at the neuronal level using the measurement of choice probabilities and the application of electrical microstimulation within selected parts of the visual cortex.

  • The identification of a significant role for the extrastriate visual cortex in the generation of binocular depth perception leads to a broadened interest in the roles of these areas in explaining some phenomena associated with the human clinical condition of amblyopia.

Abstract

Our ability to coordinate the use of our left and right eyes and to make use of subtle differences between the images received by each eye allows us to perceive stereoscopic depth, which is important for the visual perception of three-dimensional space. Binocular neurons in the visual cortex combine signals from the left and right eyes. Probing the roles of binocular neurons in different perceptual tasks has advanced our understanding of the stages within the visual cortex that lead to binocular depth perception.

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Figure 1: Recording from binocular neurons.
Figure 2: Responses to binocular anticorrelation.
Figure 3: Stereo vision in dorsal and ventral pathways.
Figure 4: Intervening in judgements about binocular depth.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by research grants from the Wellcome Trust and the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The author holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. I should like to thank H. Bridge, B. Cumming, I. Fujita, A. Glennerster, K. Krug and L. Minini for their time and patience in providing comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank B. Cumming, G. DeAngelis, I. Fujita and A. Takemura for generously providing access to unpublished data values in the preparation of Figure 1 and elsewhere. I am grateful to A.T. for kindly recalculating the ratio of anticorrelated to correlated responses for cortical area MST from the data described in their paper52. The section of the macaque monkey brain shown in Figure 4 was prepared by K. Krug, Dept. Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, Oxford, UK.

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Glossary

Tuning function

A set of measurements that summarize the selectivity of a sensory neuron for some particular aspect of the stimulus, such as orientation, visual motion or binocular disparity.

Disparity selectivity

The selectivity of a visual neuron for binocular disparity, usually summarized in the form of a tuning function.

Magnocellular pathway

Distinct pathway from retina to cortex that has synaptic relays in the lateral geniculate nucleus, which arrive in layers that consist of large cell bodies. Magnocellular neurons do not transmit colour information and have fast responses.

Parvocellular pathway

Distinct pathway from retina to cortex that has synaptic relays in the lateral geniculate nucleus, which arrive in layers that consist of small cell bodies. Parvocellular neurons carry information about colour and fine spatial detail, and have slower responses.

Stereopsis

The sense of depth that is generated when the brain combines information from the left and right eyes.

Coarse stereopsis

Binocular depth perception outside the range for stereoscopic acuity, processing disparities greater than 0.3 degrees in the human fovea.

Fine stereopsis

Binocular depth perception responsible for stereoscopic acuity and normally taken as processing disparities within the range of 0.3 degrees in the human fovea. This range is larger at greater visual eccentricities.

Single-unit recording

An experimental method of studying the nervous system in which the electrical impulses from single nerve cells are measured and analysed.

Visual eccentricity

The location of an object in visual space with respect to the line of sight from the eye, usually measured in degrees of angle between the line of sight and a line projecting from the eye to the object. It also refers to the location of a visual receptive field projected out into visual space.

Fovea

The most central region of the retina, which contains a high concentration of cone photoreceptors and forms a slight depression in the retinal surface. It projects into visual space to a region about 5 degrees across, equivalent to an object 8.7cm in diameter viewed from 1m away.

Extrastriate cortex

A belt of visually responsive areas of cortex surrounding the primary visual cortex.

Random-dot stereograms

A pair of images, one for each eye, composed of picture elements that are randomly either black or white. When combined, stereopsis reveals a previously hidden figure, which the brain detects by matching up the picture elements presented independently to each eye.

Correlation detection

A measurement that provides a simple summary of the similarity between two sets of data. In this context, the two data sets are the neural signals arising from small patches of retina at closely similar locations in the left and right eyes.

Saccadic eye movement

The transfer of gaze from one location to another by rapid, coordinated movement of the eyes.

Simple cell

Neuron of the primary visual cortex, the visual receptive field of which is orientation selective and can be divided into spatially distinct regions that are mutually antagonistic and in which light either enhances or suppresses action potentials from the neuron.

Complex cell

Neuron of the primary visual cortex, the visual receptive field of which is orientation selective but, unlike simple cells, cannot be divided into spatially distinct regions.

Energy model

A computational model of visual neuronal processing that consists of a quadrature pair of linear filters followed by the nonlinear operation of squaring and combination across those filters.

Even-symmetric function

A mathematical function for which F(−x) = F(x), where x>0.

Odd-symmetric function

A mathematical function for which F(−x) = −F(x), where x>0.

Quadrature pair

Pair of functions which have an identical Fourier amplitude spectrum in the frequency domain, but have a Fourier phase spectrum that differs by 90 degrees at all frequencies.

Near–far discrimination task

Visual task that requires the individual to judge whether a visual feature (such as a cluster of dots) is nearer or further than the distance to the visual fixation point.

Squint

A human clinical condition, manifest when a person tries to look at a target with both eyes, but the line of sight of one eye consistently deviates from the target while the other eye is successfully aligned.

Amblyopia

Poor vision through an eye that is otherwise physically healthy, but has faulty connections with the rest of the brain; there is disrupted transmission of the visual image, most often due to adverse events during a developmental critical period. It affects 2–5% of the global population.

Esotropia

Form of squint in which the deviating eye turns inwards, towards the nose (in exotropia the eye turns outwards, away from the nose).

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Parker, A. Binocular depth perception and the cerebral cortex. Nat Rev Neurosci 8, 379–391 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2131

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