Dark Adaptation as a Model of the Parkinsonian Visual System

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 48-48
Author(s):  
B Wink ◽  
J P Harris
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Dark Adaptation ◽  
Peripheral Vision ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Apparent Contrast ◽  
Contrast Gain ◽  
Spatial Frequencies

It has been suggested that the Parkinsonian visual system is like the normal visual system, but is inappropriately dark-adapted (Beaumont et al, 1987 Clinical Vision Sciences2 123 – 129). Thus it is of interest to ask to what extent dark adaptation of normal subjects produces visual changes like those of Parkinson's disease (PD). One such change is the reduction in apparent contrast of medium and high spatial frequencies in peripheral vision in the illness (Harris et al, 1992 Brain115 1447 – 1457). Normal subjects judged whether the contrast of a peripherally viewed grating was higher or lower than that of a foveally viewed grating, and a staircase technique was used to estimate the point of subjective equality. Judgements were made at four spatial frequencies (0.5 to 4.0 cycles deg−1) and four contrasts (8.0% to 64%). The display, the mean luminance of which was 26 cd m−2, was viewed through a 1.5 lu nd filter in the relatively dark-adapted condition. The ANOVA showed an interaction between dark adaptation and the spatial frequency of the gratings. Dark adaptation reduces the apparent contrast of high-spatial-frequency gratings, an effect which is greater at lower contrasts. This mimics the effect found with PD sufferers, and suggests that dark adaptation may provide a useful model of the PD visual system. In a second experiment, the effect of dark adaptation on the relationship between apparent spatial frequency in the fovea and periphery was investigated. The experiment was similar to the first, except that judgements were made about the apparent spatial frequency, rather than the contrast, of the peripheral grating. ANOVA showed no differential effect of dark adaptation on the apparent spatial frequency of the peripheral grating. This suggests that the observed reduction in apparent contrast of the peripheral gratings in dark-adapted normals and Parkinson's sufferers may reflect relative changes in contrast gain, rather than relative changes in the spatial organisation of receptive fields.

Depth Interpolation with Sparse Disparity Cues

Perception ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia M Würger ◽  
Michael S Landy
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Narrow Band ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Linear Interpolation ◽  
Uniform Field ◽  
Frequency Content ◽  
Apparent Contrast ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Basic Stimulus ◽  
Filtered Noise

The interpolation of stereoscopic depth given only sparse disparity information was investigated. The basic stimulus was a rectangle with zero disparity at one edge, and 20 or 30 min visual angle disparity at the other. The depth assigned to the ambiguous intervening locations was measured by means of a small briefly-flashed binocular comparison spot. For a stimulus consisting of a uniform rectangle presented on a background of random dots with zero disparity, interpolated depth was greater for a high mean contrast between rectangle and background than for a low mean contrast. Relative to a linear interpolation between the edges, a larger difference in edge disparity resulted in poorer depth interpolation. Depth interpolation based on rivalrous information was examined by filling the stimulus rectangle with narrow-band filtered noise which was uncorrelated between the two eyes. Four different passbands which were matched in apparent contrast were investigated. The results demonstrate that the rivalrous low-spatial-frequency content was resistant to interpolation; rivalrous high spatial frequencies did not interfere with depth interpolation. High-spatial-frequency stimuli yielded a percept similar to the uniform-field condition, whereas low-spatial-frequency stimuli lay in a depth plane near or even behind the background. In the latter case a transparent plane was perceived which was linearly interpolated between the two edges, and which floated above the rivalrous noise.

Spatial-Frequency Characteristics of Different Areas of Human Cortex

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 167-167
Author(s):  
A K Harauzov ◽  
Y E Shelepin ◽  
S V Pronin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Electrode System ◽  
Frequency Characteristics ◽  
Spatial Frequencies

We recorded visual evoked potentials in normal subjects from different areas of the occipital cortex, from the temporal and parietal lobes according to the ‘ten - twenty’ electrode system. Stimuli were black-and-white sine-wave gratings with eight different spatial frequencies in the range 0.45 to 14.4 cycles deg−1, presented at four different temporal frequencies (1, 2, 4, 8 Hz). Stimulation was either contrast-reversal or onset. VEPs were analysed both by component analysis and by Fourier transformation. Spatial characteristics were measured from the dependence of the amplitudes and latencies of the main response components (N1, P1, N2, P2) on the contrast and spatial frequency of the gratings. The characteristics obtained in the occipital lobe are in accordance with earlier experimental data [Regan, 1989 Human Electrophysiology (Amsterdam: Elsevier)]. When the temporal frequency of stimulation was increased, the maximum of the spatial-frequency curves shifted to lower spatial frequencies. However, we found differences in the spatial-frequency characteristics of different cortical areas. The results are discussed in terms of differences in the spatial and temporal tuning of the receptive fields of neurons in these areas.

Recognition of Positive and Negative Bandpass-Filtered Images

Perception ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 595-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hayes ◽  
M Concetta Morrone ◽  
David C Burr
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
Frequency Components

A study is reported in which the significance for vision of low- and high-spatial-frequency components of photographic positive and negative images was investigated by measuring recognition of bandpass-filtered photographs of faces. The results show that a 1.5 octave bandpass-filtered image contains sufficient visual information for good recognition performance, provided the filter is centred close to 20 cycles facewidth−1. At low spatial frequencies negatives are more difficult to recognize than positives, but at high spatial frequencies there is no difference in recognition, implying that it is the low-frequency components of negatives which present difficulties for the visual system.

scholarly journals Contrast thresholds reveal different visual masking functions in humans and praying mantises

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghaith Tarawneh ◽  
Vivek Nityananda ◽  
Ronny Rosner ◽  
Steven Errington ◽  
William Herbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Motion Detection ◽  
Visual Masking ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Visual Noise ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Summary Statement ◽  
Contrast Thresholds

AbstractRecently, we showed a novel property of the Hassenstein-Reichardt detector: namely, that insect motion detection can be masked by “invisible” noise, i.e. visual noise presented at spatial frequencies to which the animals do not respond when presented as a signal. While this study compared the effect of noise on human and insect motion perception, it used different ways of quantifying masking in two species. This was because the human studies measured contrast thresholds, which were too time-consuming to acquire in the insect given the large number of stimulus parameters examined. Here, we run longer experiments in which we obtained contrast thresholds at just two signal and two noise frequencies. We examine the increase in threshold produced by noise at either the same frequency as the signal, or a different frequency. We do this in both humans and praying mantises (Sphodromantis lineola), enabling us to compare these species directly in the same paradigm. Our results confirm our earlier finding: whereas in humans, visual noise masks much more effectively when presented at the signal spatial frequency, in insects, noise is roughly equivalently effective whether presented at the same frequency or a lower frequency. In both species, visual noise presented at a higher spatial frequency is a less effective mask.Summary StatementWe here show that despite having similar motion detection systems, insects and humans differ in the effect of low and high spatial frequency noise on their contrast thresholds.

Natural scenes have matched amplitude-modulated sounds that systematically influence visual scanning

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Marcia Grabowecky ◽  
Aleksandra Sherman ◽  
Satoru Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Scale Invariant ◽  
Visual Coding ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Frequencies

We have previously demonstrated a linear perceptual relationship between auditory amplitude-modulation (AM) rate and visual spatial-frequency using gabors as the visual stimuli. Can this frequency-based auditory–visual association influence perception of natural scenes? Participants consistently matched specific auditory AM rates to diverse visual scenes (nature, urban, and indoor). A correlation analysis indicated that higher subjective density ratings were associated with faster AM-rate matches. Furthermore, both the density ratings and AM-rate matches were relatively scale invariant, suggesting that the underlying crossmodal association is between visual coding of object-based density and auditory coding of AM rate. Based on these results, we hypothesized that concurrently presented fast (7 Hz) or slow (2 Hz) AM-rates might influence how visual attention is allocated to dense or sparse regions within a scene. We tested this hypothesis by monitoring eye movements while participants examined scenes for a subsequent memory task. To determine whether fast or slow sounds guided eye movements to specific spatial frequencies, we computed the maximum contrast energy at each fixation across 12 spatial frequency bands ranging from 0.06–10.16 cycles/degree. We found that the fast sound significantly guided eye movements toward regions of high spatial frequency, whereas the slow sound guided eye movements away from regions of high spatial frequency. This suggests that faster sounds may promote a local scene scanning strategy, acting as a ‘filter’ to individuate objects within dense regions. Our results suggest that auditory AM rate and visual object density are crossmodally associated, and that this association can modulate visual inspection of scenes.

scholarly journals Neuronal basis of perceptual learning in striate cortex

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Ren ◽  
Jiawei Zhou ◽  
Zhimo Yao ◽  
Zhengchun Wang ◽  
Nini Yuan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Sensitivity Training ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Cortex Area ◽  
Adult Cats

Abstract It is well known that, in humans, contrast sensitivity training at high spatial frequency (SF) not only leads to contrast sensitivity improvement, but also results in an improvement in visual acuity as assessed with gratings (direct effect) or letters (transfer effect). However, the underlying neural mechanisms of this high spatial frequency training improvement remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we examined four properties of neurons in primary visual cortex (area 17) of adult cats that exhibited significantly improved acuity after contrast sensitivity training with a high spatial frequency grating and those of untrained control cats. We found no difference in neuronal contrast sensitivity or tuning width (Width) between the trained and untrained cats. However, the trained cats showed a displacement of the cells’ optimal spatial frequency (OSF) to higher spatial frequencies as well as a larger neuronal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, both the neuronal differences in OSF and SNR were significantly correlated with the improvement of acuity measured behaviorally. These results suggest that striate neurons might mediate the perceptual learning-induced improvement for high spatial frequency stimuli by an alteration in their spatial frequency representation and by an increased SNR.

scholarly journals Spatial Frequency Response of Epoxy-Based Volume Holographic Recording Material

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1018
Author(s):  
Tina Sabel
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Frequency Response ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Holographic Recording ◽  
Holographic Gratings ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Recording Material ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Transmission And Reflection

Holographic volume phase gratings are recorded in an epoxy-based, free-surface, volume holographic recording material. Light-induced gratings are formed by photo-triggered mass migration caused by component diffusion. The material resolution enables a wide range of pattern spacings, to record both transmission and reflection holograms with many different spatial frequencies. An optimum spatial frequency response is found between the low spatial frequency roll-off and the high spatial frequency cut-off. The influence of the energy density of exposure on the spatial frequency response is investigated. Secondary volume holographic gratings (parasitic gratings) are observed in the high frequency range. The possibility of distinguishing the regular grating from the secondary grating is discussed in the form of probe wavelength detuning.

Envelope-responsive neurons in areas 17 and 18 of cat

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 2134-2150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. X. Zhou ◽  
C. L. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Cortical Neurons ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Sensitivity Level ◽  
Areas 17 And 18

1. Single cortical neurons are known to respond to visual stimuli containing Fourier components only in a narrow range of spatial frequencies. This investigation demonstrates that some neurons in cat area 17 and 18 can also respond to certain stimuli that have no Fourier components inside the cell's luminance spatial frequency passband. 2. To study such “non-Fourier” responses, we used envelope stimuli that consisted of a high-spatial-frequency sinusoidal luminance grating (carrier) whose contrast was modulated by a low-spatial frequency sine wave (envelope). There was no Fourier component at the apparent periodicity of the envelope spatial frequency. However, some cells responded to such a “phantom” component of the envelope modulation when it fell inside the cell's luminance spatial frequency passband while all the real Fourier components in the stimuli were outside. 3. We conducted extensive control experiments to eliminate the possibility of producing artifactual responses to the envelope stimuli due to any small residual nonlinearity of the z-linearized CRT screen. The control experiments included 1) testing of screen linearity to ensure that the effect from the residual screen nonlinearity was no larger than the sensitivity level of visual responses and 2) comparing the responses to envelope stimuli with the responses to the equivalent contrast of the artifact produced by the screen nonlinearity. All these control experiments indicated that any effect of screen nonlinearity did not contribute significantly to the neural envelope responses. 4. We performed a statistical analysis to obtain an index of relative strength of envelope responses for each cell and to objectively classify cells as “envelope-responsive” or “non-envelope-responsive.”(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Spatial Frequency Modulates the Degree of Illusory Second Flash Perception

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhiro Takeshima ◽  
Jiro Gyoba
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Single Flash ◽  
Response Biases ◽  
Slow Onset

When a brief single flash is presented simultaneously with two brief beeps, the number of presented flashes is often perceived as two. This phenomenon is referred to as the fission illusion. Several effects related to the fission illusion have been investigated using both psychophysical and neurophysiological methods. The present study examined the effects of spatial frequency on the fission illusion. At a low spatial frequency, transient channels respond preferably; conversely, sustained channels respond preferably at a high spatial frequency. Sustained channels differ in temporal properties from transient channels and are characterized by poor temporal resolution and slow-onset responses. In our previous study, visual stimuli presented at a slow processing speed were not conducive to the fission illusion. Therefore, we hypothesized that the fission illusion would not be difficult to observe when using high spatial frequencies. The results indicated that the degree of the perceived illusory second flash was reduced when spatial frequency was high as compared to when it was is low. Furthermore, according to signal detection theory, this difference between high and low spatial frequencies was not attributed to participants’ response biases. Therefore, the fission illusion likely will not occur in conditions of slow processing speed and long response latencies in sustained channels, which respond preferably to high spatial frequency stimuli. Overall, the results indicated that the fission illusion was affected by temporal characteristics of lower-order sensory processing stages.

Cortical processing of second-order motion

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISABELLE MARESCHAL ◽  
CURTIS L. BAKER
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
High Spatial Frequency ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Spatial Properties ◽  
Processing Stream ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Nonlinear Input ◽  
Nonlinear Processing ◽  
Frequency Components ◽  
Optimal Values

Neurons in the mammalian visual cortex have been found to respond to second-order features which are not defined by changes in luminance over the retina (Albright, 1992; Zhou & Baker, 1993, 1994, 1996; Mareschal & Baker, 1998a,b). The detection of these stimuli is most often accounted for by a separate nonlinear processing stream, acting in parallel to the linear stream in the visual system. Here we examine the two-dimensional spatial properties of these nonlinear neurons in area 18 using envelope stimuli, which consist of a high spatial-frequency carrier whose contrast is modulated by a low spatial-frequency envelope. These stimuli would fail to elicit a response in a conventional linear neuron because they are designed to contain no spatial-frequency components overlapping the neuron's luminance defined passband. We measured neurons' responses to these stimuli as a function of both the relative spatial frequencies and relative orientations of the carrier and envelope. Neurons' responses to envelope stimuli were narrowband to the carrier spatial frequency, with optimal values ranging from 8- to 30-fold higher than the envelope spatial frequencies. Neurons' responses to the envelope stimuli were strongly dependent on the orientation of the envelope and less so on the orientation of the carrier. Although the selectivity to the carrier orientation was broader, neurons' responses were clearly tuned, suggesting that the source of nonlinear input is cortical. There was no fixed relationship between the optimal carrier and envelope spatial frequencies or orientations, such that nonlinear neurons responding to these stimuli could perhaps respond to a variety of stimuli defined by changes in scale or orientation.

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