A laminar cortical model of monocular and binocular interactions in depth perception

Abstract

Monocular information plays a crucial role in depth perception (e.g. da Vinci stereopsis1). Despite some explanatory successes, many popular physiological models of depth perception, such as the disparity energy model2, do not incorporate monocular information and so are limited to describing stereopsis. The present work goes beyond these models by developing a detailed laminar cortical theory of how monocular and binocular information interact in areas V1, V2 and V4 of the macaque visual cortex to form coherent percepts of depth with particular emphasis on surface depth perception. This model builds on previous work that links cortical circuits to psychological and neurophysiological data a..