Shifting eye balance using monocularly directed attention in normal vision

In binocular vision, even without conscious awareness of eye of origin, attention can be selectively biased toward one eye by presenting a visual stimulus uniquely to that eye. Monocularly directed visual cues can bias perceptual dominance, as shown by studies using discrete measures of percept changes in continuous-flash suppression. Here, we use binocular rivalry to determine whether eye-based visual cues can modulate eye balance using continuous percept reporting. Using a dual-task versus single-task paradigm, we investigated whether the attentional load of these cues differentially modulates eye balance. Furthermore, both color-based and motion-based cue stimuli, non-overlaid and peripheral to the rivalry grating stimuli, were used to determine whether shifts in eye balance were stimulus specific. Aligned to cue stimulus onset, time series of percept reports were constructed and averaged across trials and participants. Specifically, for the monocular attention conditions, we found a significant shift in eye balance toward the cued eye and a significant difference in the time taken to switch from the dominating percept, regardless of whether the attention stimuli is color based or motion based. Although we did not find a significant main effect of attentional load, we found a significant interaction effect between the attentionally cued eye and attentional load on the shift in eye balance, indicating an influence of monocular attention on the shift in eye balance.