Perceptual transitions during binocular rivalry take many distinct forms, not just a simple alternation between two images. In 52 participants viewing pairs of different images, gratings, or moving dots, content analysis identified 20 unique categories of transition experience. Each person typically reported 2–3 different transition types per stimulus pair, and these categories remained consistent for the same observer over time but varied across individuals and stimulus content. The findings indicate that subjective visual experience during rivalry is richer and more complex than traditional discrete-response paradigms capture, and they suggest that neuroimaging studies of binocular rivalry may produce different results depending on how transitions are experienced.
Spontaneous brain activity before a stimulus influences whether it is consciously perceived. The prefrontal cortex and default mode network play active roles in shaping perception, not just in higher-level cognition. The findings suggest that prestimulus neural states in multiple brain networks modulate sensory processing and conscious awareness.
Binocular rivalry occurs when each eye sees a different image, causing conscious perception to alternate between them even though the physical stimuli remain constant. Contrast and attention have been shown to influence these alternations similarly, suggesting attention boosts effective stimulus contrast. This study examined brief transition periods between clear percepts, which are less understood. Observers reported four common transition types while contrast or exogenous attention was manipulated. Contrast and attention similarly affected overall rivalry dynamics, but their effects on transition appearance differed. This indicates attention's effect is not merely enhancing stimulus strength, a distinction revealed only when analyzing transition types.