Biomedical subjects
H de Ridder
Publications and source records attributed to H de Ridder.
Dynamic contrast perception assessed by pattern masking.
The perceived contrast of a pulsed grating varies markedly with the exposure duration and spatial frequency of the grating. We studied dynamic changes in perceived grating contrast with a pattern-masking paradigm. We measured masking of a brief, localized test pattern (a D6 stimulus, 30 ms in duration) by fixed-contrast cosine grating patterns of varying duration (50-500 ms). The cosine mask pattern had spatial frequency of either 1 or 6 cycles per degree (cpd) at a contrast of 0.3. The D6 test pattern was centered on a light bar of the mask and was either positive peak contrast (same-polarity test and mask) or negative peak contrast (opposite-polarity test and mask). In Experiment 1, the test and mask had simultaneous onset. With a 6-cpd mask, the same-polarity test-threshold elevation versus mask-duration function increases monotonically. For a 1-cpd mask, the same-polarity threshold-mask-duration function is nonmonotonic, with peak masking effect produced by a grating pulse of 80-100 ms. These masking effects are closely congruent with known dynamic contrast effects. With negative tests, masking-duration functions are elevated from same-polarity functions and are essentially similar in shape for 1- and 6-cpd masks. The elevated thresholds suggest inhibitory interaction between ON and OFF pathways, with a similar time course across spatial frequency. In Experiment 2, the D6 test was delayed from mask onset by 33 ms. Positive contrasts only were employed. For 1-cpd stimuli, the delay of test greatly reduced masking at all mask durations and eliminated the nonmonotonic function. This suggests that for low-spatial-frequency patterns, perceived contrast is determined by an early peak component of the neural response. But for 6-cpd stimuli, masking of the delayed test was somewhat greater at all mask durations, consistent with a gradually increasing underlying neural response to the grating. Finally, in Experiment 3, same-polarity masking effects at both spatial frequencies were replicated with negative-contrast test and mask (OFF pathway mediation). This indicates that the ON and OFF pathways have similar response dynamics.
Continuous assessment of perceptual image quality.
The study addresses whether subjects are able to assess the perceived quality of an image sequence continuously. To this end, a new method for assessing time-varying perceptual image quality is presented by which subjects continuously indicate the perceived strength of image quality by moving a slider along a graphical scale. The slider's position on this scale is sampled every second. In this way, temporal variations in quality can be monitored quantitatively, and a means is provided by which differences between, for example, alternative transmission systems can be analyzed in an informative way. The usability of this method is illustrated by an experiment in which, for a period of 815 s, subjects assessed the quality of still pictures comprising time-varying degrees of sharpness.
[Life and death. Care of the dead person].
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