The role of orientation diversity in binocular vergence control

Chao Qu, Bertram E. Shi

Abstract: Neurons tuned to binocular disparity in area V1 are hypothesized to be responsible for short latency binocular vergence movements, which align the two eyes on the same object as it moves in depth. Disparity selective neurons in V1 are not only selective to disparity, but also to other visual stimulus dimensions, in particular orientation. In this work, we explore the role of neurons tuned to different orientations in binocular vergence control. We trained an artificial binocular vision system to execute corrective vergence movements based on the outputs of disparity selective neurons tuned to different orientations and scales. As might be expected, we find that neurons tuned to vertical orientations have the strongest effect on the vergence eye movements. The effect of neurons tuned to other orientations decreases as the tuned orientation approaches horizontal. Although adding neurons tuned to non-vertical orientations does not appear to improve vergence tracking accuracy, we find that neurons tuned to non-vertical orientations still play critical roles in binocular vergence control. First, they decrease the time required to learn the vergence control strategy. Second, they also increase the effective range of vergence control.