Name: how the brain combines two-eye images
Uploaded: 2023-04-30T06:36:54.000Z
Duration: 6 min 15 s
Channel: JoVE

K12 Standards

new-york-state-science-learning-standards

New York State Science Learning Standards

High School

Life Science

Structure and Function

HS-LS1-2.

Binocular Rivalry

1. Equipment
<ol>
	<li>To easily produce binocular rivalry, use a pair of red-cyan glasses (Figure 1). 
	<img alt="3D glasses with red and blue lenses; optical equipment for viewing stereoscopic images." src="/files/ftp_upload/10065/10065fig1.jpg" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Figure 1"> 
	Figure 1. A pair of red-cyan rivalry glasses. The glasses make it possible to present two overlaid images such that only one arrives to each eye. The red lens will filter out all but red light before it reaches a viewer’s eye, and the cyan lens will filter out all but blue light. This means that a blue tinted image won’t make it to the eye with the red lens, and a red tinted image won’t make it to the eye behind the blue lens</li>
	<li>A stopwatch will also be necessary.</li>
</ol>
2. Stimulus
<ol>
	<li>An easy demonstration having to do with rivalry involves nonsense words superimposed on something meaningful.</li>
	<li>In PowerPoint©, create a slide with the word ‘Hello’ written in blue, and on top of it write the letters ‘Cfbal’ written in red. Make the word on top 50% transparent. It will look like this (Figure 2).</li>
</ol>
<img alt="Binocular rivalry concept diagram; visual stimuli overlap for perception analysis in cognitive study." src="/files/ftp_upload/10065/10065fig2.jpg" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Figure 2"> 
Figure 2. Sample stimulus for a demonstration of binocular rivalry. The word ‘Hello’ is written in blue, and in a 50% transparent red, the nonsense letters ‘Cfbal’ are written on top.
3. Running the Experiment
<ol>
	<li>Print the slide on a piece of white paper. Seat a participant in front of the paper and ask them to put on the glasses.</li>
	<li>Set the stopwatch to countdown 120 seconds.</li>
	<li>Instruct the participant that every ten seconds they will be asked to report what they see, and that they should answer in one of three ways, ‘Hello,’ ‘Cfbal,’ or ‘Mixed / Unclear’.</li>
	<li>Begin the count, and every ten seconds, ask the participant what they see. Mark down the responses.</li>
</ol>

Binocular rivalry forms the basis for most 3D movies and games—although these days, they usually use other kinds of filters, not red and cyan. The logic is the same though: If two images are different in just the right ways, and presented to each eye separately, then the brain can be tricked into seeing 3D when the surface it is looking at is actually 2D, like a movie screen.
If you look at this picture (Figure 5) with the glasses, it should appear to be 3D.
<p class="jove...

binocular rivalry

Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum&#8212;Johns Hopkins University

Why do people have two forward-facing eyes? By presenting the brain with two ever so slightly different images it becomes possible to comprehend visual problems that are far more difficult to process through a single eye. Chief among these is the problem of 3-D perception, seeing the world in three dimensions, despite retinal inputs in only two dimensions.
What happens if each eye receives two completely different images? That does not happen in nature, to be sure, but it can be contrived in the laboratory in a set-up called binocular rivalry.
Binocular rivalry is a common laboratory paradigm for investigating the ways that the brain integrates information from two eyes, and in recent years, the mechanisms responsible for producing conscious experience.

The results can be graphed by plotting the raw data (Figure 3), which is what the participant reported seeing as a function of time.
<img alt="Graph of participant responses every 10 seconds; data points fluctuate over time; experiment result." src="/files/ftp_upload/10065/10065fig3.jpg" data-altupdatedat="1761830439000" data-alt="Figure 3"> 
Figure 3. Participants reports what he sees every 10-seconds. The majority of ...

Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum&#8212;Johns Hopkins University

Why do people have two forward-facing eyes? By presenting the brain with two ever ...

Binocular rivalry is a common laboratory paradigm for investigating how the brain integrates information from our two eyes.During normal visual perception, our eyes receive roughly the same image on each of the two retina. The brain takes advantage of this redundancy to make sense of what is observed.By presenting two different images to each eye separately, scientists can study how the brain coordinates and interprets their separate signals. Tricking the brain with two independent images is referred to as binocular rivalry.This video demonstrates methods for using binocular rivalry, including how to design the stimulus, perform the experiment, and how to analyze and interpret data.In this simple experiment, participants are asked to wear red-cyan glasses and report how a generated stimulus is interpreted.In this case, the pair of glasses filter material to each eye, such that the red lens will filter out all but red light before it reaches the participant?s eye, and the cyan lens will filter out all but blue light.The generated stimulus involves superimposing tinted words: a red, nonsense word, such as Cfbal, over a blue, meaningful word, like Hello.When the filter glasses are wor

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how the brain combines two-eye images

Binocular vision lets the brain combine information from two forward-facing eyes. This gives people a better way to judge the world in three dimensions, even though each retina receives only a two-dimensional image.

Binocular rivalry is a laboratory setup that uses this same two-eye system in a different way. In the experiment, each eye is shown a completely different image. That does not happen in nature, but scientists can create it to study how the brain handles conflicting visual input.

Researchers use binocular rivalry to explore how the brain integrates information from two eyes. They also use it to study the processes that may help produce conscious experience. For high school students, it is a clear example of how vision research can reveal both how we see depth and how the brain turns images into awareness.

How the Brain Combines Two-Eye Images

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Explore binocular vision and binocular rivalry, a lab method that shows how the brain merges two-eye input and helps researchers study visual perception and consciousness.

How the Brain Combines Two-Eye Images | JoVE K12

Jonathan Flombaum

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HS-LS1-1.

How the Brain Combines Two-Eye Images

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