Does V1 response suppression initiate binocular rivalry?

Using this dataset

As Cell Press authors, we share all of the data and original code we report in our paper with the research community. This dataset contains stimulus-locked multi-units responses for each recording session analyzed and reported in the associated manuscript at iScience. For generating the figures reported in the manuscript, please use our custom MATLAB repository published on GitHub at: https://github.com/BrockMCarlson/BMC_AdaptdcosFigures.

Download the GitHub repository, follow the setup instructions in the ReadMe, and run the Controller_iScienceSubmission.mlx live script. 

Does V1 response suppression initiate binocular rivalry?

HIGHLIGHTS

• The role of primary visual cortex (V1) for binocular rivalry (BR) is unclear.
• V1 population spiking is reduced at the onset of BR, providing a potential trigger.
• However, this broad spiking suppression in does not occur for a variant of BR.
• The BR variant reduces subpopulation responses, a potential alternate trigger.

SUMMARY

In binocular rivalry (BR) only one’s view is perceived. The neural underpinnings of BR are debated. Recent studies suggest that primary visual cortex (V1) initiates BR. One such trigger might be response-suppression across most V1 neurons at the onset of BR. Here we utilize a variant of BR called binocular rivalry flash suppression (BRFS) to test this hypothesis. BRFS is identical to binocular rivalry, except stimuli are shown with a ~1s delay. If V1 response suppression was required to initiate BR, it should occur during BRFS as well. To test this hypothesis, we compared V1 spiking in two macaques observing BRFS. We found that BRFS resulted in response-facilitation rather than response-suppression across V1 neurons. However, BRFS still reduces responses in a subset of V1 neurons due to the adaptive effects of asynchronous stimulus presentation. We argue that this selective response suppression could serve as an alternate initiator of BR.