Winner-take-all circuits exhibit key hallmarks of binocular rivalry S Marx1, G Gruenhage2, D Walper1, U Rutishauser3, W Einhauser1 |
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1Neurophysics, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany |
| Perception is inherently ambiguous. Rivalry models such ambiguity by presenting constant stimuli that evoke alternating perceptual interpretations. We modeled key phenomena that are common to nearly all forms of rivalry: i) Dominance durations, the times during which a single percept is perceived, follow a heavy-tailed distribution. ii) Changes in stimulus strength have well-defined effects on dominance durations (Levelt's propositions). iii) Long periodic stimulus removal ("blanking") stabilizes the percept, while short blanking destabilizes it. The model consisted of three coupled winner-take-all circuits with 2 excitatory and 1 inhibitory units each. We found that the network exhibited all three hallmarks of rivalry; it made novel predictions on the functional dependence of dominance durations on stimulus strength and blank duration, which we verified with 2 binocular rivalry experiments. Beyond predicting all hallmarks of rivalry, our model is well founded in neuronal circuitry. It is a generic model of competitive processes rather than tailored to explain specific aspects of rivalry. Hence our model provides a natural link from rivalry to other forms of perceptual ambiguity and to other competitive processes, such as attention and decision-making. Acknowledgement: Financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through grant EI 852/3 (WE) is gratefully acknowledged. |
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