Sensory interactions during human fusional response.
The nature of sensory interactions during human fusional response was investigated using band-limited, 10th-derivative-of-Gaussian patterns. Experiments were performed to investigate the effects of spatial separation, disparity magnitude, and stimulus spatial frequency on horizontal sensory fusional amplitudes (SFA). When the disparities in the inducing and probe regions were in the same direction the SFA for the probe increased; when the disparities were in opposite directions the SFA was reduced. Increases and decreases in the SFA for the probe caused by the inducing stimulus were designated enhancement and inhibition respectively. Both enhancement and inhibition increased with increasing inducing disparity. They were evident over a range of spatial frequencies from 0.75 to 3.0 c/deg and among retinal regions separated by as much as 1.5 deg arc. The SFA for the probe was not inhibited when the peak spatial frequency of the inducing stimulus was 2 octaves higher than that of the probe. The observed changes in SFA were found to be due to shifts in location rather than changes in the extent of the fusional range for the probe.