Keywords

Veregence Eye Movements, Binocular Energy Model, Interocular Contrast

Abstract

Vergence eye movements align the optical axes of our two eyes onto an object of interest, thus facilitating the binocular summation of the images projected onto the left and the right retinae into a single percept. Both the computational substrate and the functional behaviour of binocular vergence eye movements have been the topic of in depth investigation. Here, we attempt to bring together what is known about computation and function of vergence mechanism. To this aim, we evaluated of a biologically inspired model of horizontal and vertical vergence control, based on a network of V1 simple and complex cells. The model performances were compared to that of human observers, with dichoptic stimuli characterized by a varying amounts of interocular correlation, interocular contrast, and vertical disparity.

The model provides a qualitative explanation of psychophysiological data. Nevertheless, human vergence response to interocular contrast differs from model’s behavior, suggesting that the proposed disparity-vergence model may be improved to account for human behavior. More than this, this observation also highlights how dichoptic unbalanced stimulation can be used to investigate the significant but neglected role of sensory processing in motor planning of eye movements in depth.

Start Date

11-5-2016 11:10 AM

End Date

11-5-2016 11:35 AM

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May 11th, 11:10 AM May 11th, 11:35 AM

Modelling Short-Latency Disparity-Vergence Eye Movements Under Dichoptic Unbalanced Stimulation

Vergence eye movements align the optical axes of our two eyes onto an object of interest, thus facilitating the binocular summation of the images projected onto the left and the right retinae into a single percept. Both the computational substrate and the functional behaviour of binocular vergence eye movements have been the topic of in depth investigation. Here, we attempt to bring together what is known about computation and function of vergence mechanism. To this aim, we evaluated of a biologically inspired model of horizontal and vertical vergence control, based on a network of V1 simple and complex cells. The model performances were compared to that of human observers, with dichoptic stimuli characterized by a varying amounts of interocular correlation, interocular contrast, and vertical disparity.

The model provides a qualitative explanation of psychophysiological data. Nevertheless, human vergence response to interocular contrast differs from model’s behavior, suggesting that the proposed disparity-vergence model may be improved to account for human behavior. More than this, this observation also highlights how dichoptic unbalanced stimulation can be used to investigate the significant but neglected role of sensory processing in motor planning of eye movements in depth.