A population study of binocular function

J M Bosten; P T Goodbourn; A J Lawrance-Owen; G Bargary; R E Hogg; J D Mollon

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2015.02.017

A population study of binocular function

Vision Res. 2015 May;110(Pt A):34-50. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.02.017. Epub 2015 Mar 12.

Authors

J M Bosten¹, P T Goodbourn², A J Lawrance-Owen³, G Bargary⁴, R E Hogg⁵, J D Mollon³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK; School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. Electronic address: J.Bosten@sussex.ac.uk.
² Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK; School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK; Division of Optometry and Visual Science, City University, London, UK.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK; Centre for Experimental Medicine, Queen's University Belfast, UK.

PMID: 25771401
DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.02.017

Abstract

As part of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of perceptual traits in healthy adults, we measured stereo acuity, the duration of alternative percepts in binocular rivalry and the extent of dichoptic masking in 1060 participants. We present the distributions of the measures, the correlations between measures, and their relationships to other psychophysical traits. We report sex differences, and correlations with age, interpupillary distance, eye dominance, phorias, visual acuity and personality. The GWAS, using data from 988 participants, yielded one genetic association that passed a permutation test for significance: The variant rs1022907 in the gene VTI1A was associated with self-reported ability to see autostereograms. We list a number of other suggestive genetic associations (p<10(-5)).

Keywords: Binocular rivalry; Dichoptic masking; GWAS; Individual differences; Stereo acuity; Stereopsis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Contrast Sensitivity / physiology
Dominance, Ocular / physiology
Female
Genome-Wide Association Study
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Perceptual Masking / physiology
Psychophysics
Sensory Thresholds
Sex Factors
Vision Disparity / physiology
Vision, Binocular / genetics
Vision, Binocular / physiology*
Visual Acuity / physiology
Visual Perception / genetics
Visual Perception / physiology
Young Adult