Dichoptic Viewing Methods for Binocular Rivalry Research: Prospects for Large-Scale Clinical and Genetic Studies
Twin Research and Human Genetics Volume 16 Number 6 pp. 1033–1078 C The Authors 2013 doi:10.1017/thg.2013.76 Dichoptic Viewing Methods for Binocular Rivalry Research: Prospects for Large-Scale Clinical and Genetic Studies Phillip C. F. Law,1 Bryan K. Paton,2,3,4 Richard H. Thomson,1 Guang B. Liu,5 Steven M. Miller,1,3 and Trung T. Ngo1,6 1Perceptual and Clinical Neuroscience Group, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2Philosophy and Cognition Lab, Philosophy Department, SOPHIS, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3School of Psychology & Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 4Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 5Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, Centre for Systems Biology, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia 6Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Binocular rivalry (BR) is an intriguing phenomenon that occurs when two different images are presented, one to each eye, resulting in alternation or rivalry between the percepts. The phenomenon has been studied for nearly 200 years, with renewed and intensive investigation over recent decades. The rate of perceptual switching has long been known to vary widely between individuals but to be relatively stable within individuals. A recent twin study demonstrated that individual variation in BR rate is under substantial genetic control, a finding that also represented the first report, using a large study, of genetic contribution for any post-retinal visual processing phenomenon. The twin study had been prompted by earlier work showing BR rate was slow in the heritable psychiatric condition, bipolar disorder (BD).
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