Abstract

Perceptual multistability during ambiguous visual perception is an important clue to neural dynamics. We examined perceptual switching during ambiguous depth perception using a Necker cube stimulus, and also during binocular rivalry. Analysis of perceptual switching time series using variance-sample size analysis, spectral analysis and time series shuffling shows that switching times behave as a 1/f noise and possess very long-range correlations. The long memory feature contrasts sharply with the traditional satiation models of multistability, where the memory is not incorporated, as well as with recently published models of multistability and neural processing, where memory is excluded. On the other hand, the long memory feature favors the concept of "dynamic core" or coalition of neurons, where neurons form transient coalitions. Perceptual switching then corresponds to replacement of one coalition of neurons by another. The inertia and memory measure the stability of a coalition: a strong and stable coalition has to be won over by another similarly strong and stable coalition, resulting in long switching times. The complicated transient dynamics of competing coalitions of neurons may be addressable using a combination of functional imaging, measurement of frequency-tagged magnetoencephalography and frequency-tagged encephalography, simultaneous recordings of groups of neurons in many areas of the brain, and concepts from statistical mechanics and nonlinear dynamics theory. © Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag 2006.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1612-4790; 1612-4782

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2006

PubMed ID

16683173

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