Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

A specialization for relative disparity in V2

Abstract

Stereoscopic depth perception relies on binocular disparities, or small geometric differences between the retinal images of each eye. The most reliable binocular depth judgments are those that are based on relative disparities between two simultaneously visible features in a scene. Many cortical areas contain neurons that are sensitive to disparity, but it is unclear whether any areas show a specific sensitivity to relative disparity. We recorded from neurons in the early cortical visual area V2 of the awake macaque during presentation of random-dot patterns. The depth of a central region ('center'), and that of an annular surrounding region ('surround'), were manipulated independently in these stimuli. Some cells were fully selective for the resulting relative disparities. Most showed partial selectivity, which nonetheless indicated a sensitivity for the depth relationship between center and surround. Both types of neural response could support psychophysical judgments of relative depth.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Possible neuronal responses to a stimulus with regions (1 and 2) whose absolute disparities are varied independently.
Figure 2: The cyclopean stimulus configuration and the responses of a disparity-tuned neuron (a and b, respectively).
Figure 3: The responses of 3 further neurons recorded at 2 different surround disparities.
Figure 4: Pair-wise comparison of shift ratios measured at different surround disparities, for a set of neurons.
Figure 5: Two neurons in which changes in surround disparity altered the shape of the disparity tuning curve.
Figure 6: Summary of shift ratios.
Figure 7: A simple model of how responses to relative disparity might be generated from inputs that are sensitive only to absolute disparity.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Erkelens, C.J. & Collewijn, H. Motion perception during dichoptic viewing of moving random-dot stereograms. Vis. Res. 25, 583–588 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Erkelens, C.J. & Collewijn, H. Eye movements and stereopsis during dichoptic viewing of moving random-dot stereograms. Vis. Res. 25, 1689–1700 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Regan, D., Erkelens, C.J. & Collewijn, H. Necessary conditions for the perception of motion-in-depth. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 27, 584–597 (1986).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Westheimer, G. Cooperative neural processes involved in stereoscopic acuity. Exp. Brain Res. 36, 585–597 (1979).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Prince, S.J.D., Pointon, A.D., Cumming, B.G. & Parker, A.J. The precision of single neuron responses in V1 during stereoscopic depth judgements. J. Neurosci. 20, 3387–3400 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Cumming, B.G. & Parker, A.J. Binocular neurons in v1 of awake monkeys are selective for absolute, not relative, disparity. J. Neurosci. 19, 5602–5618 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bradley, D.C. & Andersen, R.A. Center–surround antagonism based on disparity in primate area MT. J. Neurosci. 18, 7552–7565 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Eifuku, S. & Wurtz, R. Response to motion in extrastriate area MSTl: disparity sensitivity. J. Neurophysiol. 82, 2462–2475 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Roe, A.W. & T'so, D. Y. Visual topography in primate V2: multiple representation across functional stripes. J. Neurosci. 15, 3689–3715 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Poggio, G.F., Motter, B.C., Squatrito, S. & Trotter, Y. Responses of neurons in visual cortex (V1 and V2) of the alert macaque to dynamic random dot stereograms. Vis. Res. 25, 397–406 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. vonder Heydt, R., Zhou, H. & Freidman, H.S. Representation of stereoscopic edges in monkey visual cortex. Vis. Res. 40, 1955–1967 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Bakin, J., Nakayama, K. & Gilbert, C. Visual responses in monkey areas V1 and V2 to three-dimensional surface configurations. J. Neurosci. 20, 8188–8198 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Julesz, B. Foundations of Cyclopean Perception (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1971).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kumar, T. & Glaser, D.A. Depth discrimination of a line is improved by adding other nearby lines. Vis. Res. 32, 1667–1676 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Janssen, P., Vogels, R. & Orban, G. Three-dimensional shape coding in inferior temporal cortex. Neuron 27, 385–397 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Janssen, P., Vogels, R. & Orban, G. Selectivity for 3D shape that reveals distinct areas within macaque inferior temporal cortex. Science 288, 2054–2056 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Ohzawa, I., DeAngelis, G.C. & Freeman, R.D. Stereoscopic depth discrimination in the visual cortex: neurons ideally suited as disparity detectors. Science 249, 1037–1041 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Ohzawa, I., DeAngelis, G.C. & Freeman, R.D. Encoding of binocular disparity by complex cells in the cat's visual cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 77, 2879–2909 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Fleet, D.J., Wagner, H. & Heeger, D.J. Neural encoding of binocular disparity: energy models, position shifts and phase shifts. Vis. Res. 36, 1839–1857 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Prince, S.J.D., Cumming, B.G. & Parker, A.J. Quantitative analysis of responses of V1 neurons to horizontal disparity in dynamic random dot stereograms. J. Neurophysiol. 87, 191–208 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Judge, S.J., Richmond, B.J. & Chu, F.C. Implantation of magnetic search coils for measurement of eye position: an improved method. Vis. Res. 30, 535–538 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Barlow, H., Blakemore, C. & Pettigrew, J. The neural mechanism of binocular depth discrimination. J. Physiol. 193, 327–342 (1967).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Draper, N.R. & Smith, H.S. Applied Regression Analysis 3rd edn. (Wiley, New York, 1998).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. We thank H. Bridge for her help in data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Owen M. Thomas.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Thomas, O., Cumming, B. & Parker, A. A specialization for relative disparity in V2. Nat Neurosci 5, 472–478 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn837

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn837

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing