Hysteresis in human binocular fusion: temporalward and nasalward ranges

Abstract

Fender and Julesz [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 57, 819 (1967)] moved pairs of retinally stabilized images across the temporalward visual fields and found significant differences between the disparities that elicited fusion and the disparities at which fusion was lost. They recognized this phenomenon as an example of hysteresis. In the work reported in this paper, binocular retinally stabilized images of vertical dark bars on white backgrounds were moved into horizontal disparity in both the nasalward and the temporalward directions. The limits of Panum's fusional area and the hysteresis demonstrated by these limits were measured for two observers. The following results were obtained: (1) the nasalward limits of Panum's fusional area and the hysteresis demonstrated by the nasalward limits do not differ significantly from the temporalward limits and the hysteresis demonstrated by the temporalward limits; (2) the limits of Panum's fusional area and the hysteresis demonstrated by these limits are not significantly different if one stimulus moves across each retina or if one stimulus is held still on one retina and the other stimulus is moved across the other retina; (3) the use of nonstabilized cross hairs for fixation decreases the hysteresis; and (4) the full hysteresis effect can be elicited with a rate of change of disparity of 2 arcmin/sec.