THEORY AND MEASUREMENT OF VISUAL MECHANISMS : III. DeltaI AS A FUNCTION OF AREA, INTENSITY, AND WAVE-LENGTH, FOR MONOCULAR AND BINOCULAR STIMULATION

Fechner's paradox in binocular contrast sensitivity

It is generally accepted that binocular spatial contrast sensitivity in normal observers is higher than monocular sensitivity by some 42% across all spatial frequencies, an amount predictable on the basis of neural summation of the two monocular responses. Such summation predicts that a reduction of sensitivity in one eye would result in a fall in binocular sensitivity to a level approaching, but never lower than, that of the other eye. We present evidence that reduction in monocular sensitivity caused by reduced luminance can, in some subjects, lower binocular sensitivity to a level below that of the other eye, an analogue of Fechner's brightness paradox. In other subjects the expected summation occurs and binocular sensitivity always remains at or above the monocular level.

Binocular vision: two possible central interactions between signals from two eyes

Both foveae of light-adapted subjects were stimulated at the same time with monocularly presented lights of increasing or decreasing luminance. Combinations judged just detectable violated predictions of the energy summation and the probability summation hypotheses of binocular interaction. Rather, the results can be explained by independent central neural mechanisms that signal the sum or the difference of stimuli to two eyes.