Adaptation effects and reversible figures: a comment on Horlitz and O'Leary.

Abstract in brief

• Horlitz and OLeary's research emphasizes the influence of top-down processes like attention and familiarity on how people perceive reversible figures, suggesting that these perceptual changes involve more than just passive neural mechanisms.
• They argue that their findings challenge the idea that neural adaptation alone explains these reversals, instead proposing an information-access approach, although the current commentary warns that procedural differences, like adaptation duration, could also explain the results.
• The commentary highlights that Horlitz and OLeary's methods might not have been conducive to producing significant neural adaptation effects and suggests that both bottom-up (neural) and top-down (cognitive) factors jointly influence how reversible figures are perceived.