When observers view a perceptually bistable stimulus, their perception changes stochastically. Various studies have shown across-observer correlations in the percept durations for different bistable stimuli including binocular rivalry stimuli and bistable moving plaids. Previous work on binocular rivalry posits that neural inhibition in the visual hierarchy is a factor involved in the perceptual fluctuations in that paradigm. Here, in order to investigate whether between-observer variability in cortical inhibition underlies correlated percept durations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we used center-surround suppression as a behavioral measure of cortical inhibition. We recruited 217 participants in a test battery that included bistable perception paradigms as well as a center-surround suppression paradigm. While we were able to successfully replicate the correlations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we did not find a correlation between center-surround suppression strength and percept durations for any form of bistable perception. Moreover, the results from a mediation analysis indicate that center-surround suppression is not the mediating factor in the correlation between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaids. These results do not support the idea that cortical inhibition can explain the between-observer correlation in mean percept duration between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception.

当观察者看到感知双稳态刺激时，他们的感知会随机变化。各种研究表明，不同双稳态刺激（包括双眼竞争刺激和双稳态移动格子）的感知持续时间存在跨观察者相关性。先前关于双眼竞争的研究认为，视觉层次中的神经抑制是该范式中知觉波动的一个因素。在这里，为了研究皮层抑制的观察者之间的变异性是否是双眼竞争和双稳态移动格子感知之间相关感知持续时间的基础，我们使用中心-环绕抑制作为皮层抑制的行为测量。我们招募了 217 名参与者参加一组测试，其中包括双稳态感知范式以及中心环绕抑制范式。虽然我们能够成功地复制双眼竞争和双稳态移动格子感知之间的相关性，但我们没有发现任何形式的双稳态感知的中心-环绕抑制强度和感知持续时间之间的相关性。此外，中介分析的结果表明，中心-环绕抑制不是双眼竞争与双稳态移动格子之间相关性的中介因素。这些结果并不支持皮质抑制可以解释双眼竞争和双稳态移动格子知觉之间平均知觉持续时间的观察者间相关性的观点。