sensory rivalry

physiology

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July 13, 2026

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Retinal rivalry, also known as binocular rivalry, occurs when dissimilar visual stimuli are presented to corresponding areas of both eyes. Instead of fusing into a single image, the brain alternates between perceiving one stimulus and then the other. This phenomenon highlights how the brain processes information from each eye, with one image sometimes suppressing the other.12

While ocular dominance refers to a preference for one eye, retinal rivalry is more about the competition between the visual fields for attention. When the images are too different to be fused, the brain may suppress one to focus on the other, leading to an oscillating perception. This is a complex aspect of binocular vision that demonstrates how our perception is constructed.12

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illusion
Intersensory facilitation and rivalry
Sensory rivalry, in which one stimulus inhibits the perception of another, may result from a conflict of cues if sensory information is ambiguous or discrepant, as in the tilted-room experiment discussed above, during which the visual sense conflicts with cues from the sense of equilibrium.…
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Sensory rivalry, in which one stimulus inhibits the perception of another, may result from a conflict of cues if sensory information is ambiguous or discrepant, as in the tilted-room experiment discussed above, during which the visual sense conflicts with cues from the sense of equilibrium.…
Read More