Development of Relative Disparity Sensitivity in Human Visual Cortex

Stereopsis is the primary cue underlying our ability to make fine depth judgments. In adults, depth discriminations are supported largely by relative rather than absolute binocular disparity, and depth is perceived primarily for horizontal rather than vertical disparities. Although human infants begin to exhibit disparity-specific responses between 3 and 5 months of age, it is not known how relative disparity mechanisms develop. Here we show that the specialization for relative disparity is highly immature in 4- to 6-month-old infants but is adult-like in 4- to 7-year-old children. Disparity-tuning functions for horizontal and vertical disparities were measured using the visual evoked potential. Infant relative disparity thresholds, unlike those of adults, were equal for vertical and horizontal disparities. Their horizontal disparity thresholds were a factor of ~10 higher than adults, but their vertical disparity thresholds differed by a factor of only ~4. Horizontal relative disparity thresholds for 4- to 7-year-old children were comparable with those of adults at ~0.5 arcmin. To test whether infant immaturity was due to spatial limitations or insensitivity to interocular correlation, highly suprathreshold horizontal and vertical disparities were presented in alternate regions of the display, and the interocular correlation of the interdigitated regions was varied from 0% to 100%. This manipulation regulated the availability of coarse-scale relative disparity cues. Adult and infant responses both increased with increasing interocular correlation by similar magnitudes, but adult responses increased much more for horizontal disparities, further evidence for qualitatively immature stereopsis based on relative disparity at 4–6 months of age.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Stereopsis, our ability to sense depth from horizontal image disparity, is among the finest spatial discriminations made by the primate visual system. Fine stereoscopic depth discriminations depend critically on comparisons of disparity relationships in the image that are supported by relative disparity cues rather than the estimation of single, absolute disparities. Very young human and macaque infants are sensitive to absolute disparity, but no previous study has specifically studied the development of relative disparity sensitivity, a hallmark feature of adult stereopsis. Here, using high-density EEG recordings, we show that 4- to 6-month-old infants display both quantitative and qualitative response immaturities for relative disparity information. Relative disparity responses are adult-like no later than 4–7 years of age.

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