Binocular rivalry: a gateway to consciousness

Book excerpt: Brain-mind problems like consciousness have been stimulating the interest of philosophers and scientists since the ancient times. In the last decades, the dramatic development of neuroscience has allowed studying such phenomena at several different levels – from single neurons to behavior. Binocular rivalry, a paradigm dissociating the sensory input from the conscious perception during dichoptic viewing of incongruent images, has been a celebrated example of such a tool. During the last century, empirical research on binocular rivalry contributed the first important insights into the neuronal mechanisms of subjective visual perception. Recent advances in brain imaging and electrophysiological recording/stimulating techniques as well as novel theoretical concepts and analytical methods could be exploited to expand our knowledge on this fascinating phenomenon of visual perception and elucidate the neural processes underlying visual consciousness. This Research Topic aims to bring together contributions that could expand the current frontiers of knowledge in binocular rivalry. In particular we would like to focus on reviews, hypothesis & theory or original research articles that specifically combine novel concepts, analytical tools and neurophysiological techniques with binocular rivalry. We expect that these contributions will a) integrate the vast knowledge already existing in the field b) formulate and, when possible, address questions under the light of recent methodological advances in neuroscience and c) provide a benchmark that will stimulate future cutting edge research.