Human cortical neural correlates of visual fatigue during binocular depth perception: An fNIRS study

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 16;12(2):e0172426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172426. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was adopted to investigate the cortical neural correlates of visual fatigue during binocular depth perception for different disparities (from 0.1° to 1.5°). By using a slow event-related paradigm, the oxyhaemoglobin (HbO) responses to fused binocular stimuli presented by the random-dot stereogram (RDS) were recorded over the whole visual dorsal area. To extract from an HbO curve the characteristics that are correlated with subjective experiences of stereopsis and visual fatigue, we proposed a novel method to fit the time-course HbO curve with various response functions which could reflect various processes of binocular depth perception. Our results indicate that the parietal-occipital cortices are spatially correlated with binocular depth perception and that the process of depth perception includes two steps, associated with generating and sustaining stereovision. Visual fatigue is caused mainly by generating stereovision, while the amplitude of the haemodynamic response corresponding to sustaining stereovision is correlated with stereopsis. Combining statistical parameter analysis and the fitted time-course analysis, fNIRS could be a promising method to study visual fatigue and possibly other multi-process neural bases.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Asthenopia / physiopathology*
  • Depth Perception*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Oxyhemoglobins / metabolism
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / methods*
  • Vision, Binocular*
  • Visual Cortex / physiopathology*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Oxyhemoglobins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 11621101, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/, SH); Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program (NO. 201001D0104799318, http://cxtd.gdstc.gov.cn/, SH); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong province (NO. 2014A030310502, http://www.gdstc.gov.cn/, HZ); Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (NO. 2015M580725 & NO. 2016T90791, http://chinapostdoctor.org.cn/WebSite/program/Default.aspx, HZ). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.