Orientation Channels in the Peripheral Visual Field
Peripheral vision has been modelled as a coarser version of foveal vision. Thus visual behaviour elicited by, say, a 2 cycles deg−1 grating imaged foveally would be reproduced in the periphery by a lower spatial frequency (say 1 cycle deg−1). Tuning for orientation is broader at a low than high spatial frequency (Snowden, 1992 Vision Research32 1965 – 1974). Taken together this leads to the surprising prediction that, given a particular spatial frequency, tuning for orientation is narrower for peripheral viewing! In this study it has also been found that orientation tuning broadens with increasing temporal frequency, but the opposite relationship has been reported for peripheral vision (Sharpe and Tolhurst, 1973 Vision Research13 2103 – 2112). Orientation bandwidths were measured by the method of selective adaptation following the procedures and analysis techniques described by Snowden (1991 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B246 53 – 59). The results show that orientation bandwidths did indeed narrow as a stimulus was imaged more peripherally, so that its bandwidth in the peripheral retina could be half that of the fovea. However, at a greater eccentricity, bandwidths broadened once more. The results were not influenced by the contrast of the adaptation pattern eliminating visibility as a possible explanation. Increasing temporal frequency broadened orientation bandwidth at all eccentricities.