Binocular rivalry subjected to noises and time delay

Abstract

Neural systems are inherently noisy and time-delay, and these effects influence our perception from time to time. This is particularly apparent in binocular rivalry, where our perception alternates between competing stimuli shown to the two eyes. Here, we investigated the binocular rivalry behavior under the action of time delay and two noise sources. Our numerical results find that (i) the time delay and additive noise make the stationary probability distribution function of the binocular rivalry jump among two, three and four stabilities, breaking or maintaining balance of the binocular rivalry; (ii) the dependence of mean first passage time on multiplicative noise intensity shows a maximum, i.e., noise enhance perceptual stability, while the stability can be enhanced many times by the time delay; (iii) the characteristic correlation time not only exhibits a underdamped oscillation behavior as a function of delay time (i.e., multiple coherence resonances), but also shows a nonmonotonic behavior with the additive noise intensity. These findings have the significant implication for understanding and controlling perception alteration from a new perspective.