Biomedical subjects

P M Pearson

Publications and source records attributed to P M Pearson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

Texture-orientation mechanisms pool colour and luminance contrast.

Do texture-sensitive mechanisms operate separately on, or pool, luminance and colour contrast information? We addressed this question by measuring threshold-versus-amplitude functions for orientation-modulated (OM) gratings comprised of gabor elements defined by either colour or luminance contrast. In both the uncrossed (all elements in test and mask defined by either colour or luminance contrast) and crossed (equal mixtures of luminance and colour contrast in both test and mask) conditions, evidence of sub-threshold facilitation between test and mask was obtained. The sub-threshold facilitation in the crossed condition could not be accounted for by luminance artifacts in the ostensibly isoluminant gabors. The results are consistent with a single visual mechanism sensitive to OM textures that pools information from both the luminance and chromatic post-receptoral mechanisms.

Color Perception↗

PubMed2001

On the interference of task-irrelevant hue variation on texture segmentation.

Although natural images often include discordant information about object boundaries, the majority of research on texture segmentation has involved variation along a single dimension, e.g. colour, orientation, size. In this study, we examined orientation-based texture segmentation in the presence and absence of task-irrelevant colour variation. Previously, it had been shown that orientation-based texture segmentation was impaired if the elements, normally of one colour, were randomly allocated one of two colours (Morgan et al, 1992 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 248 291-295). We found that this interference disappeared, however, when the spatial pattern of the colour variation was regular, as opposed to random, and when the elements were randomly positioned. We consider four models of how relevant and irrelevant texture information might combine to produce the interference effect, with special regard to these new findings. None of the models could account for the dependency of the interference effect on the spatial arrangement of colour and orientation in the texture. We suggest that inter-element separation and spatial-frequency selectivity are critical variables in the interference effect.

Color Perception↗

PubMed2000

Chromatic contrast sensitivity: the role of absolute threshold and gain constant in differences between the fovea and the periphery.

A model of foveal achromatic and chromatic sensitivity [Vision Res. 36, 1597 (1996)] was extended to the peripheral visual field. Threshold-versus-illuminance functions were analyzed to determine effects of eccentricity on absolute thresholds and gain constants of chromatic and luminance mechanisms. The resulting peripheral model successfully predicted peripheral contrast sensitivity as a function of wavelength, for both white and 500-nm backgrounds. We conclude that the short-wavelength-sensitive cone opponent mechanism may mediate thresholds in Sloan's notch in the normal periphery and that interpretation of reduced chromatic sensitivity in the periphery requires an explicit model of how eccentricity affects both the gain constant and the absolute threshold.

Color Perception↗

PubMed1996

The aftereffect to relative motion does not show interocular transfer.

The motion aftereffect is strongest after viewing a moving field embedded in a patterned stationary surround, which suggests that relative motion is an important signal for its generation. The contribution of relative motion to binocular aspects of the motion aftereffect was assessed. Subjects viewed uniformly moving random dots surrounded by a stationary random-dot annulus. These displays could be presented in a variety of combinations to each eye separately or to both eyes, during adaptation and test. It was found that, although the presence of relative motion during adaptation significantly extended the duration of the monocular motion aftereffect, it did not augment interocular transfer. The presence of stationary surround contours in the nonadapting eye did not influence the aftereffect in the adapting eye. The enhancement provided by stationary surround contours is largely dependent on their presence during adaptation. The presence or absence of surround contours during the test phase did not influence the duration of the aftereffect. These findings are consistent with previous suggestions that the motion aftereffect is, in part, the result of adaptation to relative motion that occurs relatively early in the visual pathway-before binocular integration.

Adaptation, Ocular↗