In the last two years, we made substantial progress in identifying the underlying neural mechanisms of Binocular Rivalry (BR) and the attempts to control its dynamics, both with intracranial data and with EEG – in line with the proposed research plan. The intracranial part of the project turned out to be highly complicated; our first step was to reanalyze the data we already obtained from five patients, which entailed extensive training and modifications of previous analysis codes to our needs. In addition, we gathered data from three new patients, leading to a total of eight. Analyzing these data yielded interesting results, including a special class of neurons which are instruction-sensitive, so that they change their firing patterns according to subjects’ volitional efforts. Yet our units-yield was lower than expected, and some of the activations were not as strong as we hoped for, making it unlikely that they would suffice for a realtime system and online feedback. Thus, we decided to join forces with another MSCA awardee, Dr. Hagar Gelbard Sagiv, who has been working on a similar project, yet with a somewhat different approach. There, using selective responses rather than categorical ones, we identified much stronger activations, starting as early as 2s prior to the perceptual switch. We have just submitted a manuscript reporting our results. This constitutes an important contribution to our understanding of consciousness and its underlying mechanisms, as reflected in BR dynamics, and might also pave the way for the online realtime project originally suggested in this action. The EEG study was completed as planned, and is now being finalized as well; we are at the final stages of the analysis, and the results corroborate and complement those of the intracranial project, showing early activations which precede the switch, as well as differential responses which are instruction-selective, like some of the neurons we found. We anticipate submitting the manuscript in the next few months. Two additional papers were accepted for publication, addressing questions which fall under the umbrella of the main research question (yet tackle it in different ways than the ones which were originally planned).
