Generalized Flash Suppression
The differences between flash suppression and binocular rivalry have been further emphasized by the finding that stimulus conflict between the two eyes is not a requirement to achieve visual suppression. The novel paradigm of generalized flash suppression (GFS) reported by Wilke, Logothetis and Leopold (2003) demonstrates that any visual stimulus can be rendered invisible when presented outside the fovea for a certain amount of time, followed by the addition of a distracting second stimulus in its vicinity.
This effect is strongest when the two stimuli are presented to (different regions in) opposite eyes, which suggests that it is somewhat related to binocular rivalry. At the same time, GFS shares similarities to Troxler's fading and motion induced blindness.
A recent study on the neuronal basis of GFS demonstrated that neuronal activity in early visual cortex was untouched by the perceptual effect, whereas neurons in higher areas altered their activity pattern during the illusion (Wilke et al. 2006). Authors report that the disappearance of the stimulus triggered changes in the local field potentials of all these areas, suggesting that the perception during flash suppression is reflected in large parts of the brain.
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