Binocular competition

Binocular competition is a phenomenon of visual perception that occurs when various images are presented to the right and left eye. At the same time, the test subject does not see a mixture of two images, but instead, alternately one or the other image, the phases of perception themselves can replace each other irregularly. Since the visual stimulus does not change, the binocular competition serves as experimental evidence that the brain not only displays external visual information , but actively creates a perceived visual image with the participation of its own mechanisms. Perception itself in this phenomenon becomes multistable, that is, the subjectively perceived visual image is held steady for some time before it is replaced by another visual image.

The switching of the phases of perception by the right and left eye in binocular competition can be slower than usual in autism ^[1] . The switching frequency can be used for a quantitative objective assessment of the severity of symptoms in autism that does not require analysis of speech and communicative abilities of patients or subjects, including in young children ^[2] .