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. 2008 Jan 30;3(1):e1497. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001497

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Brascamp et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

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a, Each of our stimuli has two distinct perceptual interpretations. Only one percept is experienced at any given moment. Left: An ambiguous rotating sphere is a two-dimensional projection of dots covering the surface of a transparent sphere that rotates around a central axis. Because no cue indicates which dots are in front, the rotation direction is ambiguous and subjects perceive either direction in turn, as indicated by the red and green arrows. Right: In binocular rivalry ambiguity arises because two incompatible images are projected into the two eyes (designated as ‘L’ and ‘R’). Subjects perceive the left eye's image or the right eye's image in turn. b, Top: Viewing an ambiguous stimulus continuously, observers experience random alternations between both percepts every few seconds. Bottom: Periodically removing the stimulus from view (here: on-time ∼0.5 s; off-time ∼1.5 s) causes perception to stabilize in one interpretation for sometimes minutes, with only incidental switches between alternative interpretations: Perceptual stabilization.