Biomedical subjects

R Näsänen

Publications and source records attributed to R Näsänen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Training-induced cortical representation of a hemianopic hemifield.

BACKGROUND: Patients with homonymous hemianopia often have some residual sensitivity for visual stimuli in their blind hemifield. Previous imaging studies suggest an important role for extrastriate cortical areas in such residual vision, but results of training to improve vision in patients with hemianopia are conflicting. OBJECTIVE: To show that intensive training with flicker stimulation in the chronic stage of stroke can reorganise visual cortices of an adult patient. METHODS: A 61-year-old patient with homonymous hemianopia was trained with flicker stimulation, starting 22 months after stroke. Changes in functioning during training were documented with magnetoencephalography, and the cortical organisation after training was examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). RESULTS: Both imaging methods showed that, after training, visual information from both hemifields was processed mainly in the intact hemisphere. The fMRI mapping results showed the representations of both the blind and the normal hemifield in the same set of cortical areas in the intact hemisphere, more specifically in the visual motion-sensitive area V5, in a region around the superior temporal sulcus and in retinotopic visual areas V1 (primary visual cortex), V2, V3 and V3a. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive training of a blind hemifield can induce cortical reorganisation in an adult patient, and this case shows an ipsilateral representation of the trained visual hemifield in several cortical areas, including the primary visual cortex.

Flicker Fusion↗

PubMed2006

Temporal sensitivity in a hemianopic visual field can be improved by long-term training using flicker stimulation.

BACKGROUND: Blindness of a visual half-field (hemianopia) is a common symptom after postchiasmatic cerebral lesions. Although hemianopia severely limits activities of daily life, current clinical practice comprises no training of visual functions in the blind hemifield. OBJECTIVE: To find out whether flicker sensitivity in the blind hemifield can be improved with intensive training, and whether training with flicker stimulation can evoke changes in cortical responsiveness. METHODS: Two men with homonymous hemianopia participated in the experiments. They trained with flicker stimuli at 30 degrees or with flickering letters at 10 degrees eccentricity twice a week for a year, and continued training with more peripheral stimuli thereafter. Neuromagnetic responses were registered at 1-2-month intervals, and the Goldmann perimetry was recorded before, during and after training. RESULTS: Flicker sensitivity in the blind hemifield improved to the level of the intact hemifield within 30 degrees eccentricity in one participant and 20 degrees eccentricity in the other. Flickering letters were recognised equally at 10 degrees eccentricity in the blind and intact hemifields. Improvement spread from the stimulated horizontal meridian to the whole hemianopic field within 30 degrees. Before training, neuromagnetic recordings showed no signal above the noise level in the hemianopic side. During training, evoked fields emerged in both participants. No changes were found in the Goldmann perimetry. DISCUSSION: Results show that sensitivity to flicker could be fully restored in the stimulated region, that improvement in sensitivity spreads to the surrounding neuronal networks, and that, during training, accompanying changes occurred in the neuromagnetic fields.

Cerebral Cortex↗

PubMed2001

Dynamics of cortical activation in a hemianopic patient.

Although residual vision in patients with cortical blindness is common, its brain mechanisms are poorly known. To study these mechanisms we measured neuromagnetic responses to visual stimuli in a patient with right posterior cerebral lesion and left visual field hemianopia. His vision had partially recovered with intensive training before our measurements. Compared with the processing in the healthy side, early occipital responses were attenuated for both passive viewing of checkerboard reversal patterns and a letter identification task. In both conditions there were prominent longer-latency responses at the right superior temporal cortex. We suggest that the activation in the superior temporal cortex can partially compensate for the failure to produce synchronized population responses at the early stages of visual cortical processing.

Blindness, Cortical↗

PubMed2001

Identification of facial images in peripheral vision.

Contrast sensitivity for face identification was measured as a function of image size to find out whether foveal and peripheral performance would become equivalent by magnification. Size scaling was not sufficient for this task, but when the data was scaled both in size and contrast dimensions, there was no significant eccentricity-dependent variation in the data, i.e. for equivalent performance both the size and contrast needed to increase in the periphery. By utilising spatial noise added to the images we found that in periphery information was utilised less efficiently and peripheral inferiority arose completely from lower efficiency, not from increased internal noise.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed2001

Effect of stimulus contrast on performance and eye movements in visual search.

According to the visual span control hypothesis, eye movements are controlled in relation to the size of visual span. In reading, the decrease of contrast reduces visual span, saccade sizes, and reading speed. The purpose of the present study is to determine how stimulus contrast affects the speed of two-dimensional visual search and how changes in eye movements and visual span could explain changes in performance. The task of the observer was to search for, and identify, an uppercase letter from a rectangular array of characters in which the other items were numerals. Threshold search time, i.e. the duration of stimulus presentation required for search that is successful with a given probability, was determined by using a multiple-alternative staircase method. Eye movements were recorded simultaneously by using a video eye tracker. Four different set sizes (the sizes of stimulus array) (3x3-10x10), and five different contrasts (0.0186-0.412) were used. At all set sizes, threshold search time decreased with increasing contrast. Also the average number of fixations per search decreased with increasing contrast. At the smallest set size (3x3), only one fixation was needed except at the lowest contrast. Average fixation duration decreased and saccade amplitudes increased slightly with increasing contrast. The reduction of the number of fixations with increasing contrast suggests that visual span, i.e. the area from which information can be collected at one fixation, increases with increasing contrast. The reduction of the number of fixations together with reduced fixation duration result in reduced search times when contrast increases.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2000

Contrast matching across spatial frequencies for isoluminant chromatic gratings.

Contrast matching was performed with isoluminant red-green and s-cone gratings at spatial frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 8 c/deg. Contrast threshold curves were low-pass in shape, in agreement with previous findings. Contrast matching functions resembled threshold curves at low contrast levels, but became flat and independent of spatial frequency at high contrasts. Thus, isoluminant chromatic gratings exhibited contrast constancy at suprathreshold contrast levels in a similar manner as has been demonstrated for achromatic gratings.

Color Perception↗

PubMed2000

Flicker sensitivity as a function of target area with and without temporal noise.

Flicker sensitivities (1-30 Hz) in foveal, photopic vision were measured as functions of stimulus area with and without strong external white temporal noise. Stimuli were circular, sinusoidally flickering sharp-edged spots of variable diameters (0.25-4 degrees ) but constant duration (2 s), surrounded by a uniform equiluminant field. The data was described with a model comprising (i) low-pass filtering in the retina (R), with a modulation transfer function (MTF) of a form derived from responses of cones; (ii) normalisation of the temporal luminance distribution by the average luminance; (iii) high-pass filtering by postreceptoral neural pathways (P), with an MTF proportional to temporal frequency; (iv) addition of internal white neural noise (N(i)); (v) integration over a spatial window; and (vi) detection by a suboptimal temporal matched filter of efficiency eta. In strong external noise, flicker sensitivity was independent of spot area. Without external noise, sensitivity increased with the square root of stimulus area (Piper's law) up to a critical area (A(c)), where it reaches a maximum level (S(max)). Both A(c) and eta were monotonic functions of temporal frequency (f), such that log A(c) increased and log eta decreased linearly with log f. Remarkably, the increase in spatial integration area and the decrease in efficiency were just balanced, so A(c)(f)eta(f) was invariant against f. Thus the bandpass characteristics of S(max)(f) directly reflected the composite effect of the distal filters R(f) and P(f). The temporal equivalent (N(it)) of internal neural noise (N(i)) decreased in inverse proportion to spot area up to A(c) and then stayed constant indicating that spatially homogeneous signals and noise are integrated over the same area.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Spatial-frequency bandwidth of perceived contrast.

The aim of this study was to investigate the spatial-frequency bandwidth of perceived suprathreshold contrast. It has been shown that for grating stimuli contrast detection thresholds depend on spatial frequency, grating area and the number of orientation components. However, suprathreshold contrast perception exhibits contrast constancy, i.e. suprathreshold contrast matches are independent of these stimulus parameters. To study whether contrast constancy applies to spatial-frequency bandwidth, contrast matching was performed and detection thresholds were measured for spatial noise stimuli at various bandwidths centred at 2 c/deg. At high contrast levels, contrast matches were nearly independent of stimulus spatial-frequency bandwidth up to about 6 octaves, even though detection thresholds increased with bandwidth. Thus, a broad band of spatial frequencies contributed to perceived suprathreshold contrast. The requisites for this are contrast constancy with respect to spatial frequency, and integration of contrast information across different spatial frequencies so that the effective bandwidth of the system is broad.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1999

Spatial frequency bandwidth used in the recognition of facial images.

The purpose of the study was to find out what spatial frequency information human observers use in the recognition of face images. Signal-to-noise ratio thresholds for the recognition of facial images were measured as a function of the centre spatial frequency of narrow-band additive spatial noise. The relative sensitivity of recognition to different spatial frequencies was derived from these results. The maximum sensitivity was found at 8-13 c/face width and the bandwidth was just under two octaves. Qualitatively similar results were obtained with stimuli in which Fourier phase was randomised within a narrow band of different centre spatial frequencies. This resulted in a considerable increase of energy threshold around 8 c/face width and less elsewhere. Further, contrast energy thresholds were measured as a function of the centre spatial frequency of band-pass filtered face images. As a function of object spatial frequency (c/face width), energy threshold first decreased and then increased. The lowest energy thresholds found around 10 c/face width were lower than the energy threshold for unfiltered images. This is what one would expect if face recognition is narrow-band, since band-pass filtered images of optimal centre spatial frequency do not contain unused contrast energy at low and high spatial frequencies. In conclusion, the results suggest that the recognition of facial images is tuned to a relatively narrow band (< 2 octaves) of mid object spatial frequencies.

Face↗

PubMed1999

Spatial integration of signal information in Gabor stimuli.

We studied spatial integration of Gaussian weighted cosine gratings (Gabor gratings) in contrast detection by using a two-alternative forced-choice method. The Gabor gratings, which were either complete or sharply truncated to a square shape, were presented either in the presence or absence of static noise. Contrast thresholds were determined for different truncation areas and different widths of the two-dimensional Gaussian weighting function. Contrast detection performance was found to depend only on the effective spatial spread of the stimuli. The spatial spread is a physical description of signal area, which takes into account the spatial inhomogeneity of the signal. The highest detection efficiencies were obtained when the spatial spread was small independently of whether the stimuli were sharply truncated or complete smooth Gabor gratings. The results show that the contrast detection mechanism takes into account the shape of the signal window and does not collect information outside the area of the signal.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed1998

Recognition of band-pass filtered hand-written numerals in foveal and peripheral vision.

The purpose of the present study was to find out what differences between foveal and peripheral pattern recognition remain unexplained by the inhomogeneities of retinal sampling and the optics of the eye. We measured contrast thresholds for pattern recognition at different eccentricities. The effects of retinal sampling were homogenised by using M-scaling of the stimuli, and the effects of the optics of the eye were by-passed either by using strong external noise (signal-to-noise ratio is not affected by optical attenuation) or by computing retinal image contrast by means of the optical modulation transfer function. The stimuli were hand-written numerals filtered to two-octave bands of various centre object spatial frequencies (c/object). The results were described as contrast thresholds and recognition efficiency. At all eccentricities, lowest contrast thresholds and highest recognition efficiencies were found at medium object spatial frequencies. At high object spatial frequencies the peripheral retinal contrast thresholds and recognition efficiencies were nearly as good as at the fovea, but at low object spatial frequencies most of the data showed superiority of the fovea to the periphery. Therefore, at high object spatial frequencies peripheral recognition performance could be explained relatively well by the retinal sampling gradient, or equivalently by the cortical magnification factor, together with the effects of the optics of the eye. Some eccentricity dependent deterioration of recognition at low object spatial frequencies remained unexplained.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1998

Contrast restoration model for contrast matching of cosine gratings of various spatial frequencies and areas.

The purpose of the model presented in this paper is to explain the well known fact that perceived contrast becomes independent of optical low-pass and neural high-pass filtering as well as areal integration with increasing stimulus contrast. In the model we assume that perceived contrast is computed by two different parallel mechanisms. One of them integrates signal information across space to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and is affected by the optical low-pass and neural high-pass filtering. The other mechanism estimates external local contrast by using inverse filtering. These two factors are combined by a 'restoration' mechanism so that the first mechanism affects the perception of low contrast and the latter that of high contrast stimuli. The behaviour of the model was tested against experimental results obtained with normal human observers. At low contrast levels, contrast matching curves were similar in shape to the detection threshold curves both as a function of the spatial frequency and area of the grating. At high contrast levels, contrast matches became physically correct. The model described the experimental results accurately.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1997

Activation of human V5 complex and rolandic regions in association with moving visual stimuli.

We recorded magnetoencephalographic responses from seven healthy humans during the presentation of stationary and rotating radial gratings. Rotations lasting 1 s evoked movement-specific sustained activity in the parieto-occipitotemporal border area, in agreement with the activation of the V5 complex specialized for the analysis of movement. The source areas of the movement-specific sustained fields were transiently active 100-130 ms after the onsets of both rotating and stationary stimuli, suggesting that movement-related cortical areas respond to any transient changes in the visual environment. Transients were evoked also in other brain areas 60-200 ms after onsets of both stimuli. Four subjects displayed additional motion-related sustained activity in the rolandic region. Sustained activity continued after the stimulus movement in several subjects during perception of the movement aftereffect. The transient activity may evoke visual attention while sustained activity of the V5 complex may be related to the conscious perception of movement.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Effect of image orientation contents on detection efficiency.

Contrast detection performance is known to be better for single component sinusoidal gratings than for sums of gratings at different orientations. A recent study Rovamo et al. (1994) (Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 35, 2611-2619) showed that spatial integration is less effective for multiple orientation component than for single component gratings. This suggests an explanation that the size of a spatial integration window depends on the orientation contents of the stimulus. To test this hypothesis we designed a computational detection model and tested it against new experimental data. The model generates a cross-correlation template, the extent of which is limited both in the spatial and spatial frequency domain. The template is a copy of the band-pass filtered signal weighted by a spatial window function. The spatial window function, which limits spatial integration, decreases with increasing orientation range of the stimulus. The experimental stimuli were composed of side-by-side located square shaped, one cycle, grating patches. The range of either grating orientations or phases within the patches as well as the number of patches in a stimulus were varied. We also measured detection efficiency for Bessel Jo images as a function of area. Human spatial integration became considerably weaker with increasing orientation range. The increasing phase range also reduced detection efficiency to some extent. Supporting the idea of the varying size of the spatial integration window, the computational model explained the orientation, phase, and Bessel Jo data well.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed1997

Detection of geometric image distortions at various eccentricities.

PURPOSE: Human ability to perceive spatial stimuli declines with increasing eccentricity. To study this phenomenon with natural images, the authors applied the spatial scaling method by measuring the smallest detectable amount of geometric change in a human face at several eccentricities for a series of stimulus magnifications to find out whether performance could be made equal across the visual field simply by an appropriate enlargement. METHODS: The authors used a novel method to produce subtle changes to an image of a face. The smallest change recognized was determined using a two-alternative forced-choice method and expressed in terms of correlation sensitivity, the inverse of the correlation between the images that just could be discriminated. RESULTS: The detection of changes in the facial features, presumably a spatially complex task, became equal across the visual field simply by an appropriate change of scale. The E2 value represents the eccentricity at which the foveal stimulus size must double to maintain performance at the foveal level. The E2 values, found to be 1.73 degrees to 2.45 degrees, were similar to our previously measured values for vernier acuity, orientation discrimination, and curvature detection and discrimination, obtained with the same method of spatial scaling. CONCLUSIONS: The authors' results indicate that with adequate stimulus magnification, one is capable of detecting geometric changes in complex images such as face equally at the fovea and in the periphery. In this task, there seems to be no qualitative difference between the accuracy of foveal and peripheral processing.

Face↗

PubMed1996

A new psychophysical method for determining the photopic spectral-luminosity function of the human eye.

Using an 8 mm pupil, 2AFC-method, and 2 x 2 deg2 grating at 2 c/deg we measured contrast sensitivity as a function of integrated radiance for a series of interference filters with peak wavelengths at 400-700 nm. Irrespective of the radiance level, contrast sensitivity was highest when wavelength was at and around 550 nm. It decreased towards longer and shorter wavelengths, reflecting the variation of the probability of quantal catch with light wavelength. When contrast sensitivity functions plotted in double logarithmic coordinates were shifted horizontally by multiplying the integrated radiances of each filter by an appropriate scaling factor, the functions superimposed onto a single curve. Contrast sensitivity at lower levels of relative radiance (R) increased in proportion to square root of R, obeying DeVries-Rose law, but at higher levels contrast sensitivity was constant, obeying Weber's law. Scaling factors plotted as a function of wavelength provided an estimate of V(lambda) quite similar to the standard 2 deg photopic spectral-luminosity function of CIE 1924.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Performance in simple visual search at threshold contrasts.

PURPOSE: Visual search for a target, orthogonal to distractors (nontargets) in orientation, has been shown to be independent of the number of distractors (set size). This finding has been thought to indicate that the search occurs spatially in parallel and without capacity limitations. The current study was designed to test whether an orientation difference of 90 degrees between the target and distractor gratings would produce a set-size effect when performance was measured at contrast threshold, that is, whether the threshold contrast at which the target was detected among distractors increased as a function of the number of distractors. The second question studied was whether signal-position uncertainty could explain the possible set-size effect. METHODS: The observer searched for a horizontal Gabor patch target in a two-interval, forced-choice task. In the search condition, the target patch was among seven vertical distractor Gabors, all positioned along an isoeccentric circle. The number of possible display locations monitored by the observer varied, and, before each block, he was informed which locations were relevant. In the single-element condition, the target appeared alone, but the number of possible target locations varied as above. RESULTS: In both conditions, the contrast thresholds almost doubled when the number of possible target locations increased from 1 to 8. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the orientation difference between target and distractors was maximal, a set-size effect was found. The effect could be explained by positional uncertainty.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

PubMed1995

Neural modulation transfer function of the human visual system at various eccentricities.

We measured r.m.s. contrast sensitivity as a function of retinal illuminance at various spatial frequencies within 3-37 deg of eccentricity in the nasal visual field. In dim light contrast sensitivity increased in proportion to the square root of retinal illuminance obeying the DeVries-Rose law but in bright light contrast sensitivity was independent of luminance following Weber's law. Critical retinal illuminance (Ic) marking the transition between the laws was found to be independent of grating area but proportional to the spatial frequency squared at all eccentricities, in agreement with the Van Nes-Bouman law of foveal vision. In addition, the proportionality constant was found to be independent of eccentricity and similar to that of the fovea. According to our contrast detection model of human vision the modulation transfer function (PMTF) of the neural visual pathways squared is directly proportional to the critical retinal illuminance. On this basis our result means that PMTF is similar, i.e. equal to spatial frequency across the visual field, thus attenuating low spatial frequencies relatively more than high spatial frequencies. Hence, up to the spatial cut-off frequency determined by the lowest neural sampling density of each retinal location the neural modulation transfer function is independent of visual location.

Adult↗