Biomedical subjects

Peter J Bex

Publications and source records attributed to Peter J Bex.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Acuity, crowding, reading and fixation stability.

People with age-related macular disease frequently experience reading difficulty that could be attributed to poor acuity, elevated crowding or unstable fixation associated with peripheral visual field dependence. We examine how the size, location, spacing and instability of retinal images affect the visibility of letters and words at different eccentricities. Fixation instability was simulated in normally sighted observers by randomly jittering single or crowded letters or words along a circular arc of fixed eccentricity. Visual performance was assessed at different levels of instability with forced choice measurements of acuity, crowding and reading speed in a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. In the periphery: (1) acuity declined; (2) crowding increased for acuity- and eccentricity-corrected targets; and (3), the rate of reading fell with acuity-, crowding- and eccentricity-corrected targets. Acuity and crowding were unaffected by even high levels of image instability. However, reading speed decreased with image instability, even though the visibility of the component letters was unaffected. The results show that reading performance cannot be standardised across the visual field by correcting the size, spacing and eccentricity of letters or words. The results suggest that unstable fixation may contribute to reading difficulties in people with low vision and therefore that rehabilitation may benefit from fixation training.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Dynamic properties of orientation discrimination assessed by using classification images.

Recent physiological studies indicate that the tuning properties of neurons under acute preparation in primary visual cortex can change over time. We used a psychophysical reverse correlation paradigm to examine the potential repercussions of this neuronal property for human observers' ability to discriminate the orientation of targets over time. Observers were required to identify the orientation of a Gabor target presented within dynamic white noise. Frames from the noise movies were pooled to compute dynamic classification images (CIs) associated with the observers' discrimination performance, which then were fit with a weighted difference-of-Gabor function. Best-fitting templates were temporally bandpass, tuned to more oblique orientations than the stimulus but, crucially, did not change over time. The results suggest that the template for orientation discrimination is selected within the first 50 ms of stimulus onset and that, unlike the response of single cells, there is no measurable dynamic component to either orientation or spatial frequency tuning of human orientation discrimination.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

Resolution of complex motion detectors in the central and peripheral visual field.

We examine how local direction signals are combined to compute the focus of radial motion (FRM) in random dot patterns and examine how this process changes across the visual field. Equivalent noise analysis showed that a loss in FRM accuracy was largely attributable to an increase in local motion detector noise with little or no change in efficiency across the visual field. The minimum separation for discriminating the foci of two overlapping optic flow patterns increased in the periphery faster than predicted from the resolution for a single FRM. This behavior requires that observers average numerous local velocities to estimate the FRM, which enables resistance to internal and external noise and endows the system with the property of position invariance. However, such pooling limits the precision with which multiple looming objects can be discriminated, especially in the peripheral visual field.

Differential Threshold↗

PubMed2005

An oblique effect for local motion: psychophysics and natural movie statistics.

Human perception of visual motion is thought to involve two stages--estimation of local motion (i.e., of small features) and global motion (i.e., of larger objects)--identified with cortical areas V1 and MT, respectively. We asked if poor discrimination of oblique compared to cardinal directions (the oblique effect for motion; OEM) reflects a deficit in local or in global motion processing. We used an equivalent noise (EN) paradigm--where one measures direction discrimination thresholds in the presence of directional variability--to quantify local and global limits. We report that the OEM diminishes with increasing directional variability, indicating that global motion processing (the number of local motion signals pooled) is equal across all directions and that the OEM is attributable to anisotropies in local motion processing. To investigate the origin of this effect, we measured local motion statistics from natural movies (filmed from the point of view of a walking observer). This analysis reveals that the distribution of local directional energy on the oblique directions tends to be broader, and frequently more asymmetric, than on the cardinal directions. If motion detectors are optimized to deal with our visual world then such anisotropies likely explain the local nature of the OEM.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Spatial interference among moving targets.

Peripheral vision for static form is limited both by reduced spatial acuity and by interference among adjacent features ('crowding'). However, the visibility of acuity-corrected image motion is relatively constant across the visual field. We measured whether spatial interference among nearby moving elements is similarly invariant of retinal eccentricity and assessed if motion integration could account for any observed sensitivity loss. We report that sensitivity to the direction of motion of a central target-highly visible in isolation-was strongly impaired by four drifting flanking elements. The extent of spatial interference increased with eccentricity. Random-direction flanks and flanks whose directions formed global patterns of rotation or expansion were more disruptive than flanks forming global patterns of translation, regardless of the relative direction of the target element. Spatial interference was low-pass tuned for spatial frequency and broadly tuned for temporal frequency. We show that these results challenge the generality of models of spatial interference that are based on retinal image quality, masking, confusions between target and flanks, attentional resolution limits or (simple) "averaging" of element parameters. Instead, the results suggest that spatial interference is a consequence of the integration of meaningful image structure within large receptive fields. The underlying connectivity of this integration favours low spatial frequency structure but is broadly tuned for speed.

Fixation, Ocular↗

PubMed2005

Local and global limitations on direction integration assessed using equivalent noise analysis.

We used an equivalent noise (EN) paradigm to examine how the human visual system pools local estimates of direction across space in order to encode global direction. Observers estimated the mean direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise of vertical) of a field of moving band-pass elements whose directions were drawn from a wrapped normal distribution. By measuring discrimination thresholds for mean direction as a function of directional variance, we were able to infer both the precision of observers' representation of each element's direction (i.e., local noise) as well as how many of these estimates they were averaging (i.e., global pooling). We estimated EN for various numbers of moving elements occupying regions of various sizes. We report that both local and global limits on direction integration are determined by the number of elements present in the display (irrespective of their density or the size of region they occupy), and we go on to show how this dependence can be understood in terms of neural noise. Specifically, we use Monte Carlo simulations to show that a maximum-likelihood operator, operating on pooled directional signals from visual cortex corrupted by Poisson noise, accounts for psychophysical data across all conditions tested, as well as motion coherence thresholds (collected under similar experimental conditions). A population vector-averaging scheme (essentially a special case of ML estimation) produces similar predictions but out-performs subjects at high levels of directional variability and fails to predict motion coherence thresholds.

Discrimination, Psychological↗

PubMed2004

The representation of global spatial structure in amblyopia.

Visual processing is thought to involve initial local analyses that are subsequently integrated globally to derive functional representations of structure that extends over large areas of visual space. Amblyopia is a common deficit in spatial vision that could be based on either unreliable local estimates of image structure, irregularities in global image integration or a combination of errors at both these stages. The purpose of this study was to quantify the integration of local spatial information in amblyopia with global orientation discrimination and inter-ocular matching tasks. Stimuli were composed of pseudo-random arrays of highly visible and resolvable features (Gabor patches) whose local orientation and position were drawn from global distributions whose mean and variance statistics were systemically varied. Global orientation discrimination thresholds in both the amblyopic and fellow eye were elevated. The orientational and positional variances perceived by the amblyopic eye were matched by stimuli with higher variances perceived in the fellow eye. It would appear that amblyopes are able to integrate orientation information across visual space but the global representation of local structure shows greater variability compared to normal. It is this increased spatial uncertainty that underlies the spatial deficit in amblyopia.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Natural image statistics mediate brightness 'filling in'.

Although the human visual system can accurately estimate the reflectance (or lightness) of surfaces under enormous variations in illumination, two equiluminant grey regions can be induced to appear quite different simply by placing a light-dark luminance transition between them. This illusion, the Craik-Cornsweet-O'Brien (CCOB) effect, has been taken as evidence for a low-level 'filling-in' mechanism subserving lightness perception. Here, we present evidence that the mechanism responsible for the CCOB effect operates not via propagation of a neural signal across space but by amplification of the low spatial frequency (SF) structure of the image. We develop a simple computational model that relies on the statistics of natural scenes actively to reconstruct the image that is most likely to have caused an observed series of responses across SF channels. This principle is tested psychophysically by deriving classification images (CIs) for subjects' discrimination of the contrast polarity of CCOB stimuli masked with noise. CIs resemble 'filled-in' stimuli; i.e. observers rely on portions of the stimuli that contain no information per se but that correspond closely to the reported perceptual completion. As predicted by the model, the filling-in process is contingent on the presence of appropriate low SF structure.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed2003

Motion detection and the coincidence of structure at high and low spatial frequencies.

We used filtered random dot kinematograms and natural images to examine how motion detection depends the relative locations of structures defined at low and high spatial frequencies. The upper displacement limit of motion (D(max)), the lower displacement limit (D(min)) and motion coherence thresholds were unaffected by the degree of spatial coincidence between high and low spatial frequency structures i.e. whether they were consistent or inconsistent with a single feature. However motion detection was possible between band-pass filtered random dot patterns whose peak frequencies were separated by up to 4 octaves. The first result implicates spatial frequency selective motion detectors that operate independently. The second result implicates a motion system that can integrate the displacements of edges defined by widely separated spatial frequencies. Both are required to account for the two results, and they appear to operate under very similar conditions.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed2003

Grouping local directional signals into moving contours.

We consider how local motion signals are combined to represent the movements of spatially extensive objects. A series of band-pass target dots, whose collective motion defined a moving contour, was positioned within a field of randomly moving noise dots. The visibility of the contours did not depend on the direction of movement relative to local contour orientation unless the contour was constrained to pass through fixation, suggesting that a previously reported advantage for collinear motion trajectories depends on the probability of detecting any of the target elements rather than the integrated contour. Contour visibility was invariant of the spatial frequency of the elements, but it did depend on the speed, number and spacing of elements defining it, as well as the angle and spatial frequency difference between adjacent elements. Local averaging of directional signals is not sufficient to explain these results. The visibility of these moving contours identifies narrow-band grouping processes that are sensitive to the shape defined by the directions of the elements forming the contour.

Humans↗

PubMed2003

Contrast conservation in human vision.

Visual experience, which is defined by brief saccadic sampling of complex scenes at high contrast, has typically been studied with static gratings at threshold contrast. To investigate how suprathreshold visual processing is related to threshold vision, we tested the temporal integration of contrast in the presence of large, sudden changes in the stimuli such occur during saccades under natural conditions. We observed completely different effects under threshold and suprathreshold viewing conditions. The threshold contrast of successively presented gratings that were either perpendicularly oriented or of inverted phase showed probability summation, implying no detectable interaction between independent visual detectors. However, at suprathreshold levels we found complete algebraic summation of contrast for stimuli longer than 53 ms. The same results were obtained during sudden changes between random noise patterns and between natural scenes. These results cannot be explained by traditional contrast gain-control mechanisms or the effect of contrast constancy. Rather, at suprathreshold levels, the visual system seems to conserve the contrast information from recently viewed images, perhaps for the efficient assessment of the contrast of the visual scene while the eye saccades from place to place.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2003

The shape and size of crowding for moving targets.

Our ability to identify alphanumeric characters can be impaired by the presence of nearby features, especially when the target is presented in the peripheral visual field, a phenomenon is known as crowding. We measured the effects of motion on acuity and on the spatial extent of crowding. In line with many previous studies, acuity decreased and crowding increased with eccentricity. Acuity also decreased for moving targets, but the absolute size of crowding zones remained relatively invariant of speed at each eccentricity. The two-dimensional shape of crowding zones was measured with a single flanking element on each side of the target. Crowding zones were elongated radially about central vision, relative to tangential zones, and were also asymmetrical: a more peripheral flanking element crowded more effectively than a more foveal one; and a flanking element that moved ahead of the target crowded more effectively than one that trailed behind it. These results reveal asymmetrical space-time dependent regions of visual integration that are radially organised about central vision.

Eye Movements↗

PubMed2003

Perceived blur in amblyopia.

PURPOSE: The well-documented fact that visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in amblyopia are attenuated at high spatial frequencies predicts that amblyopes should perceive objects as blurred, because they do not have the high spatial frequency information necessary to represent sharp edges adequately. In the current study, the representation of blur in amblyopia with blur-discrimination and blur-matching tasks was explored in a series of experiments. METHODS: Monocular blur-discrimination thresholds were measured in a spatial two-alternative forced-choice procedure. Observers were required to discriminate which edge (right or left) appeared to be the lesser blurred. Observers also interocularly matched edges that were identical with those used in the blur-discrimination tasks, with the exception that they were viewed dichoptically at all times. RESULTS: Blur-discrimination thresholds were elevated in both the amblyopic and fellow fixing eyes but were within the normal range for interocular matching thresholds. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that blur is veridically represented in the amblyopic visual system. The surprising result is that all amblyopes, even those with the most severe visual loss, veridically matched all blurred edges, including the sharpest ones. This implies that amblyopes are able to represent levels of blur that are defined by spatial structure beyond their resolution limit.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Comparison of the spatial-frequency selectivity of local and global motion detectors.

Convergent physiological and behavioral evidence indicates that the initial receptive fields responsible for motion detection are spatially localized. Consequently, the perception of global patterns of movement (such as expansion) requires that the output of these local mechanisms be integrated across visual space. We have differentiated local and global motion processes, with mixtures of coherent and incoherent moving patterns composed of bandpass filtered dots, and have measured their spatial-frequency selectivity. We report that local motion detectors show narrow-band spatial-frequency tuning (i.e., they respond only to a narrow range of spatial frequencies) but that global motion detectors show broadband spatial-frequency tuning (i.e., they integrate across a broad range of spatial frequencies), with a preference for low spatial frequencies.

Humans↗

PubMed2002

Role of synchrony in contour binding: some transient doubts sustained.

The temporal correlation hypothesis proposes that neurons signal mutual inclusion in complex features, such as extended contours, by phase-locking their firing [C. M. Gray and W. Singer, Proc. Nat]. Acad. Sci. USA 86, 1698 (1989)]. Although this hypothesis remains controversial, a number of recent psychophysical studies have suggested that temporal correlation among features can indeed promote perceptual grouping. In particular, subjects are better at detecting extended visual contours embedded within a field of distractor elements when a small delay is present between a cycling presentation of the contour and the background [Nature 394, 179 (1988)]. We have replicated this finding and examined three potentially confounding factors. First, we controlled local density and used more curved contours composed of bandpass elements to confirm that the effect was associated with contour integration and not with the operation of coarse-scale spatial filters. Second, we minimized the effects of saccadic eye movements (which could combine with the flicker of the asynchronous display to introduce motion cues at the contour location) both by using a fixation marker that was visible only when observers made a saccade (allowing them to reject these trials) and by retinally stabilizing the stimulus. We report that eye movements contribute to the effect. Third, we asked if either visible persistence or transients at the onset and the offset of the asynchronous stimuli might contribute to the effect. We report that the effect is largely abolished by the inclusion of prestimulus and poststimulus masks and is entirely abolished by ramping the contrast of the stimulus on and off. Neither ramping, masking, nor stabilization should specifically disrupt a contour-binding scheme based on temporal synchrony, and we conclude that it is the transient component at the onset and the offset of these stimuli that is responsible for the reported advantage for asynchronous presentation.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed2002

Spatial frequency, phase, and the contrast of natural images.

We examined contrast sensitivity and suprathreshold apparent contrast with natural images. The spatial-frequency components within single octaves of the images were removed (notch filtered), their phases were randomized, or the polarity of the images was inverted. Of Michelson contrast, root-mean-square (RMS) contrast, and band-limited contrast, RMS contrast was the best index of detectability. Negative images had lower apparent contrast than their positives. Contrast detection thresholds showed spatial-frequency-dependent elevation following both notch filtering and phase randomization. The peak of the spatial-frequency tuning function was approximately 0.5-2 cycles per degree (c/deg). Suprathreshold contrast matching functions also showed spatial-frequency-dependent contrast loss for both notch-filtered and phase-randomized images. The peak of the spatial-frequency tuning function was approximately 1-3 c/deg. There was no detectable difference between the effects of phase randomization and notch filtering on contrast sensitivity. We argue that these observations are consistent with changes in the activity within spatial-frequency channels caused by the higher-order phase structure of natural images that is responsible for the presence of edges and specularities.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Critical band masking in optic flow.

Visual processing has been widely investigated with narrow band stimuli at low contrasts. We used a masking paradigm to examine how visual sensitivity under these conditions compares with the perception of the direction of heading in real scenes (i.e., with dynamic natural images at high contrasts). We first confirmed and extended previous studies showing biases in the amplitude distribution for spatial frequency, temporal frequency, speed and direction in dynamic natural movies. We then measured contrast thresholds for identification of the direction of motion for an observer traveling at various speeds. In spite of differences in contrast sensitivity and large non-uniformities in the amplitude content of the stimuli, contrast thresholds were relatively invariant of spatial frequency and completely invariant of temporal frequency, speed and direction. Our results suggest that visual processing normalises responses to supra-threshold structure at different spatial and temporal frequencies within natural stimuli and so equates their effective visibility.

Contrast Sensitivity↗