Hemispheric functional asymmetries and sex effects in visual bistable perception.
Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2023 Alfredo Brancucci, Sara Ferracci, Anita D'Anselmo et al.
Bistable perception of ambiguous figures differs by sex and by which visual hemifield the stimulus is presented to, suggesting hemispheric asymmetries in conscious perception. In two experiments, 48 participants viewed Rubin's vase-faces figures projected to either the left and right or upper and lower visual hemifields for 180 seconds while eye movements were tracked. In the first experiment, males perceived face profiles for longer when stimuli were presented to the left visual field (processed by the right hemisphere) and the vase for longer in the right visual field, while females showed similar perception across hemifields. Males also more often experienced two different percepts simultaneously from identical stimuli. These effects were absent when stimuli were presented to upper and lower fields.