# Depth perception in normal and abnormal vision

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2021 · $364,131

## Abstract

Project Summary
The human brain devotes enormous resources toward providing a cyclopean view of the world, by combining
the separate inputs from the two eyes. The resulting binocular vision has substantial benefits in the form of
stereopsis. In addition to the well-documented monocular deficits, humans with amblyopia (a developmental
disorder affecting 2-3% of the general population) also suffer abnormal depth perception, and many more
individuals are stereo-blind. However, the binocular deficits in amblyopia have seldom been assessed over the
whole range of binocular disparity. In this project, we propose to use a novel rating-scale method to evaluate
depth perception over the whole range of binocular disparities, and to use dynamic bandpass noise
stereograms with depth corrugation to reveal spatial properties of depth profiles, and to develop and test a new
model to predict depth perception pixel-by-pixel over a very broad range of stimulus conditions. The long-term
objectives of this project are to understand how the brain combines the two eyes' inputs to form 3D images in
humans with normal and abnormal binocular vision. We propose to develop a novel 3D model by combining a
disparity sensitivity model with our previous 2D model. Aim 1: Mechanisms of depth perception. We
propose to develop and test a new depth perception model with a filter/binocular-energy/filter (F-BE-F)
structure, to predict depth perception pixel by pixel over a very broad range of conditions. The two eyes images
pass through first-stage spatiotemporal filters to calculate the normalized binocular-energy (BE), which goes
through a maximum (MAX) operator for solving the correspondence problem, then goes through a disparity
window to compute local depth quantities, and finally through a second stage of spatiotemporal filtering to give
the final perceived depth profile. Different mechanisms of depth perception in human vision can be isolated by
different normalizations of the BE and different spatiotemporal properties of depth perception. Aim 2:
Spatiotemporal properties of depth perception. Our preliminary experiments suggest that depth perception
is dependent on stimulus size and duration, which can be explained by a second stage of spatiotemporal
filtering. We will further study these spatiotemporal properties of depth perception (a) at different stimulus
spatial frequencies; (b) at different stimulus orientations; (c) at different pedestal disparities in the reference
background. (d) We will perform both experiments and model simulations to extract form information from
stereograms with varying spatiotemporal depth profiles. Aim 3: Abnormal depth perception in amblyopia.
We will measure and model depth perception in humans with abnormal binocular vision due to amblyopia. We
will measure depth perception over a large range of conditions, simulating abnormalities both empirically (by
stimulus manipulation), and theoretically, by making `lesions' in our model, in order to de...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10089449
- **Project number:** 5R01EY030544-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jian Ding
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $364,131
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-02-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10089449

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10089449, Depth perception in normal and abnormal vision (5R01EY030544-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10089449. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*