P1-26: Influence of Depth from Luminance Contrast on Vergence Eye Movements

Abstract

A vergence eye movement is the simultaneous movement of both eyes in opposite directions to obtain or maintain single binocular vision. It has been shown that a vergence movement is induced not only by binocular depth but also by the changing size of the stimuli, which produces perception of motion in depth. That is, a monocular depth cue influences the direction of the eye movement, even when the eye movement contradicts depth from the disparity cue. Despite that a number of monocular depth cues are known, the influence on the vergence movement is known only with changing size. In this study, we focused on luminance contrast as a monocular depth cue and examined whether it influences the vergence movement. The stimuli were a Gabor patch with contrast changing sinusoidally in time at a given temporal frequency. When the observer looks at the stimuli, apparent depth changes with the contrast change. Eye movement measurements showed vergence movements synchronizing with luminance changes. Change in perceive...