Quantitative differences between types of rivalry can be explained in this model with different gain factors resulting from various pre-rivalry processing stages [9].
Comparing the role of form and motion, we may be able to assign the source of the temporal limit of rivalry to processing in the ventral and dorsal visual pathways, respectively [14].
Our results, furthermore, suggest that motion processing during rivalry is subservient to form processing.
What might be the use of the temporally coarse form processing during rivalry?
At the same time, many studies show a crucial role of V1 in binocular rivalry [14], [34], although higher-level processing areas have also been implicated [35] [37].
Ascertaining the neural correlates of perceptual consciousness requires separation of brain processes related to experience from those embodying non-conscious stimulus processing, a distinction made possible using binocular rivalry [36].
This finding is in correspondence with the hypothesis that rivalry is instigated at early levels of visual processing [7], although this hypothesis is under debate [3].
Overall, the data suggest that the ∼350 ms limit to binocular rivalry is a result of a temporally coarse form processing at a binocular level.
Sustained rivalry is an artificial creation of the lab, great for studying the processing of unselected material but not that relevant to everyday vision where brief rivalry due to monocular occlusions is seldom maintained by a viewer who can move his or her head for a unobstructed vantage point.
However, it remains unclear whether the residual FFA activity results from longer processing of the unattended faces compared to classical methods of binocular rivalry, or whether it reflects the use of a different control stimuli (i.e., scrambled images rather than houses), and thus a domain-general effect of object recognition rather than face-processing per se.
A clear picture of this process is needed to (i) inform functional architecture of image-processing models, (ii) identify the pathways available to support binocular rivalry, and (iii) generally advance our understanding of early vision.
