The neural basis of stereoscopic vision

Abstract

Stereoscopic vision allows animals with frontally placed eyes to perceive very small differences in relative depth. A great deal of theoretical and behavioral work has been undertaken to try to understand the parameters of this process. Physiological investigations show that neurons in the visual cortex are able to encode and process stereoscopic information. We have shown that this encoding may occur by a system that assesses differences in internal structure of receptive fields of left and right eyes. We have also developed a biologically plausible model under the assumption of serial processing that accounts for most of the experimental findings. Our results demonstrate that a major mechanism for stereoscopic encoding is likely to occur via phase differences of left and right eye receptive fields.