A common neurodynamical mechanism could mediate externally induced and intrinsically generated transitions in visual awareness

The neural correlates of conscious visual perception are commonly studied in paradigms of perceptual multistability that/nallow multiple perceptual interpretations during unchanged sensory stimulation. What is the source of this multistability in/nthe content of perception? From a theoretical perspective, a fine balance between deterministic and stochastic forces has/nbeen suggested to underlie the spontaneous, intrinsically driven perceptual transitions observed during multistable/nperception. Deterministic forces are represented by adaptation of feature-selective neuronal populations encoding the/ncompeting percepts while stochastic forces are modeled as noise-driven processes. Here, we used a unified neuronal/ncompetition model to study the dynamics of adaptation and noise processes in binocular flash suppression (BFS), a form of/nexternally induced perceptual suppression, and compare it with the dynamics of intrinsically driven alternations in binocular/nrivalry (BR). For the first time, we use electrophysiological, biologically relevant data to constrain a model of perceptual/nrivalry. Specifically, we show that the mean population discharge pattern of a perceptually modulated neuronal population/ndetected in electrophysiological recordings in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) during BFS, constrains the dynamical/nrange of externally induced perceptual transitions to a region around the bifurcation separating a noise-driven attractor/nregime from an adaptation-driven oscillatory regime. Most interestingly, the dynamical range of intrinsically driven/nperceptual transitions during BR is located in the noise-driven attractor regime, where it overlaps with BFS. Our results/nsuggest that the neurodynamical mechanisms of externally induced and spontaneously generated perceptual alternations/noverlap in a narrow, noise-driven region just before a bifurcation where the system becomes adaptation-driven