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Binocular visual plasticity can be initiated via either bottom-up or top-down mechanisms, but it is unknown if these two forms of adult plasticity can be independently combined. In seven participants with normal binocular vision, sensory eye dominance was assessed using a binocular rivalry task, before and after a period of monocular deprivation and with and without selective attention directed towards one eye. On each trial, participants reported the dominant monocular target and the inter-ocular contrast difference between the stimuli was systematically altered to obtain estimates of ocular dominance. We found that both monocular light- and pattern-deprivation shifted dominance in favour of the deprived eye. However, this shift was completely counteracted if the non-deprived eye's stimulus was selectively attended. These results reveal that shifts in ocular dominance, driven by bottom-up and top-down selection, appear to act independently to regulate the relative contrast gain between the two eyes.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-57276-8

Type

Journal article

Journal

Sci Rep

Publication Date

07/05/2024

Volume

14

Keywords

Humans, Vision, Binocular, Dominance, Ocular, Adult, Male, Female, Young Adult, Neuronal Plasticity, Photic Stimulation, Vision, Monocular, Visual Perception, Attention