Rats maintain a binocular field centered on the horizon

Abstract

In this letter, we attempt to correct a potentially serious misperception arising from the paper “Rats maintain an overhead binocular field at the expense of constant fusion”. While the authors repeatedly emphasize that the animal’s binocular field is overhead, the authors’ own data show that the truth is quite different, even orthogonal: the binocular field is in fact centered dead-ahead in front of the animal, tapering to a sliver both above and below the animal. We predict that this paper will be widely cited for something that it does not demonstrate, a concern that is borne out by the paper’s earliest citation.