Cortical computation of stereo disparity

Our ability to see the world in depth is a major accomplishment of the brain. Previous models of how positionally disparate cues to the two eyes are binocularly matched limit possible matches by invoking uniqueness and continuity constraints. These approaches cannot explain data wherein uniqueness fails and changes in contrast alter depth percepts, or where surface discontinuities cause surfaces to be seen in depth, although they are registered by only one eye (da Vinci stereopsis). A new stereopsis model explains these depth percepts by proposing how cortical complex cells binocularly filter their inputs and how monocular and binocular complex cells compete to determine the winning depth signals. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.