Misperceptions of trajectories of dots moving through the blind spot.
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Computer Graphics↗
Biomedical subjects
Brendan T Barrett
Publications and source records attributed to Brendan T Barrett.
Chromatic masking revealed by the standing wave of invisibility illusion.
We have used the standing wave of invisibility illusion (Macknik and Livingstone, 1998 Nature Neuroscience 1 144-149) to examine the masking effects produced by a range of stimuli of varying chromatic and luminance contrast content. The pattern of masking was highly selective. Maximum effects were always obtained when the target and mask were identical in terms of their chromatic and/or luminance contrast composition, but were reduced as the angular separation in colour space between them was increased. Masking was of a monopolar nature, indicating the operation of rectified mechanisms selective for different combinations of colour and luminance contrast.
Color Perception↗
Probing the causes of visual acuity loss in patients diagnosed with functional amblyopia.
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Amblyopia↗
Severe loss of positional information when detecting deviations in multiple trajectories.
Human observers can simultaneously track up to five targets in motion (Z. W. Pylyshyn & R. W. Storm, 1988). We examined the precision for detecting deviations in linear trajectories by measuring deviation thresholds as a function of the number of trajectories (T ). When all trajectories in the stimulus undergo the same deviation, thresholds are uninfluenced by T for T <or= 10. When only one of the trajectories undergoes a deviation, thresholds rise steeply as T is increased [e.g., 3.3 degrees (T = 1), 12.3 degrees (T = 2), 32.9 degrees (T = 4) for one observer]; observers are unable to simultaneously process more than one trajectory in our threshold-measuring paradigm. When the deviating trajectory is cued (e.g., using a different color), varying T has little influence on deviation threshold. The use of a different color for each trajectory does not facilitate deviation detection. Our current data suggest that for deviations that have low discriminability (i.e., close to threshold) the number of trajectories that can be monitored effectively is close to one. In contrast, when the stimuli containing highly discriminable (i.e., substantially suprathreshold) deviations are used, as many as three or four trajectories can be simultaneously monitored (S. P. Tripathy, 2003). Our results highlight a severe loss of positional information when attempting to track multiple objects, particularly in a threshold paradigm.
Attention↗
Motion-sensitive neurones in V5/MT modulate perceived spatial position.
Until recently, it was widely believed that object position and object motion were represented independently in the visual cortex. However, several studies have shown that adaptation to motion produces substantial shifts in the perceived position of subsequently viewed stationary objects. Two stages of motion adaptation have been proposed: an initial stage at the level of V1 and a secondary stage thought to be located in V5/MT. Indeed, selective adaptation can be demonstrated at each of these levels of motion analysis. What remains unknown is which of these cortical sites are involved in modulating the positional representation of subsequently viewed objects. To answer this question directly, we disrupted cortical activity by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) immediately after motion adaptation. When TMS was delivered to V5/MT after motion adaptation, the perceived offset of the test stimulus was greatly reduced. In marked contrast, TMS of V1 had no effect on the changes that normally occur in perceived position after motion adaptation. This result demonstrates that the anatomical locus at which motion and positional information interact is area V5/MT rather than V1/V2.
Brain Mapping↗
A comparison of the effects of ageing upon vernier and bisection acuity.
While most positional acuity tasks exhibit an age-related decline in performance, the effect of ageing upon vernier acuity continues to be the subject of some debate. In the present study we employed a stimulus design that enabled the simultaneous determination of bisection and vernier acuities in 36 subjects, aged between 22 and 84 years. This approach provided a means for directly testing the hypothesis that ageing affects bisection acuity but not vernier acuity by ensuring that differences in stimulus configuration and in the subject's task were kept to an absolute minimum. Optimum thresholds increased as a function of age for both bisection and vernier tasks. Inter-subject threshold variability also increased with age. Issues surrounding the comparison of absolute vernier thresholds across different studies are discussed and two important methodological factors are identified: the precise statistical method used to estimate thresholds, and the magnitude, in angular terms, of the smallest spatial offset of the elements of the vernier stimulus which can be displayed. Comparison with previously published data indicates that the discrepancy between this study and most previous investigations with respect to the effect of age upon vernier performance can be at least partly accounted for by differences in the minimum displayable vernier offset. Vernier thresholds do increase with age. The increased variability of vernier thresholds in older subjects would appear to limit the diagnostic value of the test as a means of enabling normal ageing to be distinguished from visual loss due to pathology of the eye or visual system.
Adult↗
A comparison of vernier acuity for narrowband and broadband stimuli.
This study investigates the influence of contrast and exposure duration on vernier acuity thresholds for abutting and separated narrowband stimuli, and asks whether these data can predict broadband vernier performance. Vernier thresholds were determined for sinusoidal grating stimuli at two spatial frequencies (1 and 8 c/deg) across a range of contrasts (0.05-0.8) and exposure durations (35-2100 ms). Performance was assessed for the abutting configuration, and when a gap equivalent to 0.5 to 1.5 times the spatial period of the grating was introduced between the upper and lower halves of the grating. Vernier thresholds were also determined for a square-wave stimulus as a function of contrast (0.06 to 0.78). Exposure duration was fixed at 2100 ms. In addition, thresholds were determined at the appropriate contrast levels for the fundamental frequency (1.8 c/deg) of the square-wave, and for a number of the harmonics (3F, 5F, 7F, 9F). Our results provide support for filter models of vernier acuity by showing that vernier performance for abutting and closely-separated broadband stimuli represents the envelope of vernier sensitivity of those spatial frequency mechanisms that are activated by the broadband stimulus. In the case of high frequency grating stimuli presented for long exposure durations, vernier performance can be invariant across much of the contrast range. Despite this, however, contrast independence is not exhibited for abutting broadband stimuli because, within the broadband stimuli, the contrast of the higher harmonic components never reaches a level to reveal this plateau.
Contrast Sensitivity↗
Understanding the neural basis of amblyopia.
Amblyopia is the condition in which reduced visual function exists despite full optical correction and an absence of observable ocular pathology. Investigation of the underlying neurology of this condition began in earnest around 40 years ago with the pioneering studies conducted by Hubel and Wiesel. Their early work on the impact of monocular deprivation and strabismus initiated what is now a rapidly developing field of cortical plasticity research. Although the monocular deprivation paradigm originated by Hubel and Wiesel remains a key experimental manipulation in studies of cortical plasticity, somewhat ironically, the neurology underlying the human conditions of strabismus and amblyopia that motivated this early work remains elusive. In this review, the authors combine contemporary research on plasticity and development with data from human and animal investigations of amblyopic populations to assess what is known and to reexamine some of the key assumptions about human amblyopia.
Amblyopia↗
Gross misperceptions in the perceived trajectories of moving dots.
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Eye Movements↗
Nonveridical visual perception in human amblyopia.
PURPOSE: Amblyopia is a developmental disorder of spatial vision. There is evidence to suggest that some amblyopes misperceive spatial structure when viewing with the affected eye. However, there are few examples of these perceptual errors in the literature. This study was an investigation of the prevalence and nature of misperceptions in human amblyopia. METHODS: Thirty amblyopes with strabismus and/or anisometropia participated in the study. Subjects viewed sinusoidal gratings of various spatial frequencies, orientations, and contrasts. After interocular comparison, subjects sketched the subjective appearance of those stimuli that had nonveridical appearances. RESULTS: Nonveridical visual perception was revealed in 20 amblyopes ( approximately 67%). In some subjects, misperceptions were present despite the absence of a deficit in contrast sensitivity. The presence of distortions was not simply linked to the depth of amblyopia, and anisometropes were affected as well as those with strabismus. In most cases, these spatial distortions arose at spatial frequencies far below the contrast detection acuity cutoff. Errors in perception became more severe at higher spatial frequencies, with low spatial frequencies being mostly perceived veridically. The prevalence and severity of misperceptions were frequently found to depend on the orientation of the grating used in the test, with horizontal orientations typically less affected than other orientations. Contrast had a much smaller effect on misperceptions, although there were cases in which severity was greater at higher contrasts. CONCLUSIONS: Many types of misperceptions documented in the present study have appeared in previous investigations. This suggests that the wide range of distortions previously reported reflect genuine intersubject differences. It is proposed that nonveridical perception in human amblyopia has its origins in errors in the neural coding of orientation in primary visual cortex.
Adolescent↗
Isolation of stimulus characteristics contributing to Weber's law for position.
To examine the independent contribution of various stimulus characteristics to positional judgements, we measured vernier alignment performance for three types of Gabor stimuli. In one, only the contrast envelope of the upper and lower stimulus elements was offset, with the luminance-modulated carrier grating remaining in alignment. In the second, only the carrier grating was offset. In the third, both carrier and envelope were offset together. Performance was examined over a range of element separations. When both cues are available, thresholds for small separations are dominated by carrier offset information and are inversely proportional to carrier frequency. At large separations, thresholds are governed by the spatial scale characteristics of the envelope. For broad-band stimuli such as lines, bars or dots typically used for vernier acuity, their higher frequency content can be used when separations are small, but as separation increases a smooth transition between the scales that determine threshold results in the continuum known as Weber's law for position. That is, with increasing separation, larger scales must be used, and thresholds increase in direct proportion to 1/frequency.
Contrast Sensitivity↗
Perceived contrast following adaptation: the role of adapting stimulus visibility.
The issue of whether contrast adaptation can reduce the perceived contrast of gratings oriented orthogonal to the adapting stimulus to a greater extent than parallel gratings has been the subject of considerable debate (Snowden and Hammett, 1992; Ross and Speed, 1996). We compared the reductions in perceived contrast of various test gratings oriented parallel and orthogonal to the adapting stimulus across a range of spatial frequencies (2.25-9 c/deg) and adaptation contrasts (0.19-1.0). Our results show that when the adapting stimulus is low in contrast, parallel adaptation effects are always greater than the effects of orthogonal adaptation. When the adapting contrast is increased, however, the difference between parallel and orthogonal effects is reduced. Further increases in adapting contrast can produce a situation where cross-orientation adaptation effects exceed iso-orientation effects. This was observed at low spatial frequencies (2.25 and 4.5 c/deg) only. The difference in the pattern of results obtained at low and high spatial frequencies can be explained in terms of the adapting stimulus visibility. We conclude that cross-orientation adaptation effects can be greater than iso-orientation effects, but only when the adapting stimulus is highly suprathreshold.
Adaptation, Ocular↗