DR. KAUFMAN IS AWARDED GRANT TO RESEARCH BINOCULAR INTERACTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78B05171A000600070029-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 7, 2003
• Sequence Number: 29
• Content Type: OPEN

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To Research Binocular Interaction
Dr. Lloyd Kaufman, associate professor
of psychology, recently received a grant
from the U. S. Army Medical Research
and Development Command to investi-
gate binocular interaction. His research
aims and tentative findings are presented
here.
The way in which the two eyes work
together in seeing in depth is a problem
with a long history. Scholars have been
writing on this subject since the Renais-
sance. Johannes Kepler was one of the
first to realize that people should have
persistent double vision because their two
eyes view the world from different posi-
tions..Yet most people are unaware of
their double images.
Two Answers Offered
Two answers have traditionally been
offered to the question of why people
are unaware of their double images. One
of them is more widely accepted than
th other. it states that the double images
fuse or combine at different depths, de-
pending upon their amount of double-
ness or disparity, thereby eliminating the
double vision. This is the fusion theory
and it explains both singleness of vision
and depth perception. It has, in its vari-
ous forms, been in existence since the
early 17th century. An alternative view,
one which stems from Porta in the 15th
century and duTour. in the 17th, is that
we see through one eye at a time. While
the image in one eye is suppressed, the
other eye's image enters awareness. This
explains the singleness of vision, but no
mechanism is provided for the occur-
rence of depth perception which is
known to depend upon the doubleness
or binocular disparity. In my own work
Approved For Release 2003/05/14: %m906
I am trying to extend our knowledge of
how the eyes work together and, inci-
dentally, test and extend the fusion and
suppression theories.
In the course of my studies of binocu-
lar interaction, I have shown that fusion
or combining of the two images is not
necessary for depth perception. Binocular
depth perception, or stereopsis, is pos-
sible when the patterns presented to the
two eyes have remarkable differences.
Contours may run in completely oppo-
site directions but, if they are properly
arranged, depth perception will occur. It
turns out that the two eyes work on the
distributions of brightness in their respec-
tive -images before depth perception can
occur. This process is independent of
fusion. Moreover, one eye's image may
be completely suppressed and depth may
still occur. Simple fusion theories are
therefore not applicable to the phenom-
ena of stereopsis.
A more adequate suppression theory.
is now being developed. Suppression
operates in a piecemeal fashion. Differ-
ent parts of the two eyes' views may be
suppressed at the same time. We are
attempting to map these patterns of sup-
pression since they show lawful varia-
tions depending upon the nature of the
visual stimuli.
Binocular interaction is a broader
problem than depth perception. It may
well be a means for a deeper understand-
ing of the ways in which different parts
of the nervous system work together in
general. To this end we have been seek-
ing o teutive physiii+r>gir:e} indicators of
continuing our work on human brain
waves. We study the ways in which the
brain waves fluctuate in the course o 11
changes in binocular stimulation.
This work led to the discovery that it
is possible to detect the modulation of
brain waves as fast as 1000 cycles per
second by a slowly flashing light stimulus.
This work was done with the collabora-
tion of Robert Price. We believe that this
high-frequency activity represents the
firing of neurons in the brain and that its
modulation by light reflects the fact that
more neurons or nerve cells are firing
when the light is flashed on and off. We
are now investigating the effects of
stimulation on both the classical and the
new high-frequency brain-waves.
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