Experimental study demonstrates cortical neural remapping maintains binocular depth during image misalignment in human observers, highlighting persistent retinal correspondence.
Key Points
To investigate whether neural remapping and vergence eye movements preserve binocular fusion and depth perception during progressive retinal misalignment in normal vision.
Monitored eye movements in four observers (N=4) viewing a 10-degree random-dot stereogram while overlaid vectographs were shifted apart in a temporalward direction until fusion was lost and then returned.
Tracked subjective reports of depth and fusion alongside continuous measurements of eye vergence and vergence error.
Image separation expanded up to 5 deg beyond parallel before fusion was lost, producing an average maximum neural remapping of 3.0 deg and an average hysteresis of 2.6 deg (maximum 4.1 deg).
Refusion was achieved via paired vergence saccades triggered when vergence error returned to its loss value, reducing error to zero and reflecting correspondence retention across nearly 1 min.