Abstract: PURPOSE: In adults, depriving one eye for a short period of time increases its predominance in subsequent binocular vision, reflecting a form of homeostatic plasticity in binocular vision. It remains an open question whether attention modulates binocular visual plasticity occurring at such lower levels in perceptual systems. To address this issue, we modulated the intensity of attention during monocular deprivation, examining how the plasticity in monocular deprivation is influenced by attention.
METHODS: We employed a novel and potent way of monocular deprivation, monocular flash deprivation, during which a series of scenes were rapidly presented to the peripheral visual field of the non-deprived eye, while no stimuli were presented to the deprived eye. A dual-task paradigm was presented in the central visual field. Observers were instructed to attend to peripheral monocular stimuli or perform the central dual-task paradigm under different conditions, to modulate the intensity of attention in monocular deprivation. Eye dominance change was measured before and immediately after monocular deprivation by binocular rivalry.
RESULTS: When observers attended to the peripheral monocular stimuli during monocular deprivation, the predominance of the deprived eye was greatly boosted in subsequent binocular rivalry. However, when attention was withdrawn from the monocular stimuli by the central dual-task paradigm, the deprivation effect was significantly reduced. Furthermore, a non-linear regression model fitting transient deprivation effects showed a great reduction in initial amount of shift in predominance.
CONCLUSIONS: Attention modulated the magnitude of monocular deprivation effect, which suggested a modulatory role of attention in binocular visual plasticity even at such lower levels in perceptual systems. Our study provided a novel perspective into the relation between attention and neural plasticity in adult visual cortex.

Key words: attention, monocular deprivation, neural plasticity