A New Bistable Motion Illusion Based upon ‘Kinetic Optical Occlusion’

Perception ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Timothy Petersik ◽  
Melinda McDill

A display was devised for the purpose of studying the information afforded by kinetic optical occlusion (the progressive erasure and replacement of static elements within a display). A microcomputer generated a series of equally spaced light bars on a dark background. The first bar on the left was suddenly blanked and, after a pause of variable duration (an interblank interval, or IBI), was replaced. As the first bar was replaced, the second bar in the series was blanked, and so on, until each bar in the pattern had been blanked and replaced. Depending upon the duration of the IBI, this display gave rise to one of two alternative percepts: the observer either saw movement of a dark shadow ‘in front of’ the pattern of bars (with IBIs ≲ 50 ms) or he saw right-to-left stroboscopic movement of successive bars (with IBIs ≳ 85 ms). At some intermediate IBI (the transition IBI) the display was bistable. A two-bar variant of the original display was also studied and found to be bistable under appropriate conditions. In a series of experiments it was found that the transition IBI for the original display did not depend upon whether the observer was tracking the sequence of events or fixating a stationary point in the display. The transition IBI was an increasing function of spatial frequency above about 3 cycles deg−1, and depended upon whether the display was focused or optically blurred. Empirically determined transition IBIs correspond well to estimates of the integration times of visual mechanisms studied in other paradigms.

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3257 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 955-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene McSorley ◽  
John M Findlay

The existence of a temporal anisotropy in the integration of spatial frequencies, such that spatial frequencies are integrated more effectively if they are available from low to high through time, has been examined in a series of experiments. In the first experiment, the first three harmonics of a square wave were presented in a low-to-high or a high-to-low sequence in a temporal two-interval forced-choice experiment. Subjects were asked to indicate which sequence appeared to resemble a square wave more. A high-to-low sequence of spatial frequencies was judged to more resemble the target than the low-to-high sequence. These results support a temporal anisotropy in the integration of spatial frequencies of exactly the opposite form to that suggested from previous results. Further experiments established that this was not due to task differences or to subjects basing their decision on the final spatial frequency shown. An interpretation is offered in which an isotropic mechanism for spatial-frequency integration is combined with a recency bias.


1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1358) ◽  
pp. 1149-1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Carandini ◽  
Horace B. Barlow ◽  
Lawrence P. O'keefe ◽  
Allen B. Poirson ◽  
J. Anthony Movshon

We tested the hypothesis that neurons in the primary visual cortex adapt selectively to contingencies in the attributes of visual stimuli. We recorded from single neurons in macaque V1 and measured the effects of adaptation either to the sum of two gratings (compound stimulus) or to the individual gratings. According to our hypothesis, there would be a component of adaptation that is specific to the compound stimulus. In a first series of experiments, the two gratings differed in orientation. One grating had optimal orientation and the other was orthogonal to it, and therefore did not activate the neuron under study. These experiments provided evidence in favour of our hypothesis. In most cells adaptation to the compound stimulus reduced responses to the compound stimulus more than it reduced responses to the optimal grating, and adaptation to the optimal grating reduced responses to the optimal grating more than it reduced responses to the compound stimulus. This suggests that a component of adaptation was specific to (and caused by) the simultaneous presence of the two orientations in the compound stimulus. To test whether V1 neurons could adapt to other contingencies in the stimulus attributes, we performed a second series of experiments, in which the component gratings were parallel but differed in spatial frequency, and were both effective in activating the neuron under study. These experiments failed to reveal convincing contingent effects of adaptation, suggesting that neurons cannot adapt equally well to all types of contingency.


Author(s):  
J. H. Butler ◽  
C. J. Humphreys

Electromagnetic radiation is emitted when fast (relativistic) electrons pass through crystal targets which are oriented in a preferential (channelling) direction with respect to the incident beam. In the classical sense, the electrons perform sinusoidal oscillations as they propagate through the crystal (as illustrated in Fig. 1 for the case of planar channelling). When viewed in the electron rest frame, this motion, a result of successive Bragg reflections, gives rise to familiar dipole emission. In the laboratory frame, the radiation is seen to be of a higher energy (because of the Doppler shift) and is also compressed into a narrower cone of emission (due to the relativistic “searchlight” effect). The energy and yield of this monochromatic light is a continuously increasing function of the incident beam energy and, for beam energies of 1 MeV and higher, it occurs in the x-ray and γ-ray regions of the spectrum. Consequently, much interest has been expressed in regard to the use of this phenomenon as the basis for fabricating a coherent, tunable radiation source.


Author(s):  
K. Kovacs ◽  
E. Horvath ◽  
J. M. Bilbao ◽  
F. A. Laszlo ◽  
I. Domokos

Electrolytic lesions of the pituitary stalk in rats interrupt adenohypophysial blood flow and result in massive infarction of the anterior lobe. In order to obtain a deeper insight into the morphogenesis of tissue injury and to reveal the sequence of events, a fine structural investigation was undertaken on adenohypophyses of rats at various intervals following destruction of the pituitary stalk.The pituitary stalk was destroyed electrolytically, with a Horsley-Clarke apparatus on 27 male rats of the R-Amsterdam strain, weighing 180-200 g. Thirty minutes, 1,2,4,6 and 24 hours after surgery the animals were perfused with a glutaraldehyde-formalin solution. The skulls were then opened and the pituitary glands removed. The anterior lobes were fixed in glutaraldehyde-formalin solution, postfixed in osmium tetroxide and embedded in Durcupan. Ultrathin sections were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and investigated with a Philips 300 electron microscope.


Author(s):  
G. Cliff ◽  
M.J. Nasir ◽  
G.W. Lorimer ◽  
N. Ridley

In a specimen which is transmission thin to 100 kV electrons - a sample in which X-ray absorption is so insignificant that it can be neglected and where fluorescence effects can generally be ignored (1,2) - a ratio of characteristic X-ray intensities, I1/I2 can be converted into a weight fraction ratio, C1/C2, using the equationwhere k12 is, at a given voltage, a constant independent of composition or thickness, k12 values can be determined experimentally from thin standards (3) or calculated (4,6). Both experimental and calculated k12 values have been obtained for K(11<Z>19),kα(Z>19) and some Lα radiation (3,6) at 100 kV. The object of the present series of experiments was to experimentally determine k12 values at voltages between 200 and 1000 kV and to compare these with calculated values.The experiments were carried out on an AEI-EM7 HVEM fitted with an energy dispersive X-ray detector.


Author(s):  
David A. Grano ◽  
Kenneth H. Downing

The retrieval of high-resolution information from images of biological crystals depends, in part, on the use of the correct photographic emulsion. We have been investigating the information transfer properties of twelve emulsions with a view toward 1) characterizing the emulsions by a few, measurable quantities, and 2) identifying the “best” emulsion of those we have studied for use in any given experimental situation. Because our interests lie in the examination of crystalline specimens, we've chosen to evaluate an emulsion's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of spatial frequency and use this as our critereon for determining the best emulsion.The signal-to-noise ratio in frequency space depends on several factors. First, the signal depends on the speed of the emulsion and its modulation transfer function (MTF). By procedures outlined in, MTF's have been found for all the emulsions tested and can be fit by an analytic expression 1/(1+(S/S0)2). Figure 1 shows the experimental data and fitted curve for an emulsion with a better than average MTF. A single parameter, the spatial frequency at which the transfer falls to 50% (S0), characterizes this curve.


Author(s):  
Joachim Frank

Cryo-electron microscopy combined with single-particle reconstruction techniques has allowed us to form a three-dimensional image of the Escherichia coli ribosome.In the interior, we observe strong density variations which may be attributed to the difference in scattering density between ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and protein. This identification can only be tentative, and lacks quantitation at this stage, because of the nature of image formation by bright field phase contrast. Apart from limiting the resolution, the contrast transfer function acts as a high-pass filter which produces edge enhancement effects that can explain at least part of the observed variations. As a step toward a more quantitative analysis, it is necessary to correct the transfer function in the low-spatial-frequency range. Unfortunately, it is in that range where Fourier components unrelated to elastic bright-field imaging are found, and a Wiener-filter type restoration would lead to incorrect results. Depending upon the thickness of the ice layer, a varying contribution to the Fourier components in the low-spatial-frequency range originates from an “inelastic dark field” image. The only prospect to obtain quantitatively interpretable images (i.e., which would allow discrimination between rRNA and protein by application of a density threshold set to the average RNA scattering density may therefore lie in the use of energy-filtering microscopes.


Author(s):  
L.X. Oakford ◽  
S.D. Dimitrijevich ◽  
R. Gracy

In intact skin the epidermal layer is a dynamic tissue component which is maintained by a basal layer of mitotically active cells. The protective upper epidermis, the stratum corneum, is generated by differentiation of the suprabasal keratinocytes which eventually desquamate as anuclear comeocytes. A similar sequence of events is observed in vitro in the non-contracting human skin equivalent (HSE) which was developed in this lab (1). As a part of the definition process for this model of living skin we are examining its ultrastructural features. Since desmosomes are important in maintaining cell-cell interactions in stratified epithelia their distribution in HSE was examined.


Author(s):  
L. J. Brenner ◽  
D. G. Osborne ◽  
B. L. Schumaker

Exposure of the ciliate, Tetrahymena pyriformis, strain WH6, to normal human or rabbit sera or mouse ascites fluids induces the formation of large cytoplasmic bodies. By electron microscopy these (LB) are observed to be membrane-bounded structures, generally spherical and varying in size (Fig. 1), which do not resemble the food vacuoles of cells grown in proteinaceous broth. The possibility exists that the large bodies represent endocytic vacuoles containing material concentrated from the highly nutritive proteins and lipoproteins of the sera or ascites fluids. Tetrahymena mixed with bovine serum albumin or ovalbumin solutions having about the same protein concentration (7g/100 ml) as serum form endocytic vacuoles which bear little resemblance to the serum-induced LB. The albumin-induced structures (Fig. 2) are irregular in shape, rarely spherical, and have contents which vary in density and consistency. In this paper an attempt is made to formulate the sequence of events which might occur in the formation of the albumin-induced vacuoles.


Author(s):  
O.L. Krivanek ◽  
M.L. Leber

Three-fold astigmatism resembles regular astigmatism, but it has 3-fold rather than 2-fold symmetry. Its contribution to the aberration function χ(q) can be written as:where A3 is the coefficient of 3-fold astigmatism, λ is the electron wavelength, q is the spatial frequency, ϕ the azimuthal angle (ϕ = tan-1 (qy/qx)), and ϕ3 the direction of the astigmatism.Three-fold astigmatism is responsible for the “star of Mercedes” aberration figure that one obtains from intermediate lenses once their two-fold astigmatism has been corrected. Its effects have been observed when the beam is tilted in a hollow cone over a wide range of angles, and there is evidence for it in high resolution images of a small probe obtained in a field emission gun TEM/STEM instrument. It was also expected to be a major aberration in sextupole-based Cs correctors, and ways were being developed for dealing with it on Cs-corrected STEMs.


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