  Perceptual rivalry, where conflicting sensory information leads to
alternating perceptions crucial for associated cognitive function, has
attracted researcher's attention for long. Despite progresses being made,
recent studies have revealed limitations and inconsistencies in our
understanding across various rivalry contexts. We develop a unified physical
framework, where perception undergoes a consecutive phase transition process
encompassing different multi-state competitions. We reveal the underlying
mechanisms of perceptual rivalry by identifying dominant switching paths among
perceptual states and quantifying mean perceptual durations, switching
frequencies, and proportions of different perceptions. We uncover the
underlying nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamics by analyzing average
nonequilibrium flux and entropy production rate, while associated time series
irreversibility reflects the underlying nonequilibrium mechanism of perceptual
rivalry and link thermodynamical results with neuro-electrophysiological
experiments. Our framework provides a global and physical understanding of
brain perception, which may go beyond cognitive science or psychology but
embodies the connection with wider fields as decision-making.
