Color Vision Is Altered During the Suppression Phase of Binocular Rivalry

Increment-threshold spectral sensitivity functions were determined during the dominance and suppression phases of binocular rivalry. The shapes of the functions obtained during the dominance phase exhibited three maxima at approximately 440, 530, and 610 nanometers and resembled functions obtained for nonrivalrous control conditions. However, the functions measured during suppression had a single broad peak near 555 nanometers and were adequately described by functions measured with flicker methods during nonrivalrous conditions. The results indicate that binocular rivalry differentially attenuates opponent-color information relative to achromatic information.