STEREOSCOPIC DEPTH-PERCEPTION AT HIGH VELOCITIES

THE view of the world from different perspectives provided by the two eyes is used by the human visual system to compute the relative distances and solid shapes of objects(1). However, the traditional theory of binocular disparity takes little account of the fact that a moving target will stimulate many different sets of disparate points in the two eyes with a range of temporal delays. Here we show that stereoacuity for periodic gratings is not degraded by velocities of up to 640 degrees s(-1) provided that they do not move at a greater rate than 30 cycles s(-1). The minimum detectable spatial phase difference between the eyes was equivalent to a spatial phase difference of about 5 degrees and an interocular temporal delay as small as 450 mu s. We suggest that stereopsis for moving targets is accomplished by neurons having a spatial-temporal phase shift in their receptive fields between the eyes.