Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:55:12.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence for two systems mediating perceived contrast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Julie R. Brannan  and
Ivan Bodis
Julie R. Brannan
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology, Mount Sinai Medical School of the City University of New York
Ivan Bodis
Affiliation:
Departments of Neurology and Ophthalmology, Mount Sinai Medical School of the City University of New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We report psychophysical evidence for a categorical dichotomy in the perception of contrast. Observers were required to rate the contrast of sinusoidal gratings (2.3 c/d) with contrast varying over a given range relative to two standards. One standard was designated “high” contrast and the other was designated “low.” There was a boundary effect: contrast judgment depended upon whether the tested ranges included 10–15% contrast and discrimination was sharpest at the boundary between 10 and 15% contrast. These results are consistent with the existence of two systems underlying perceived contrast; one primarily sensitive below 10%, and the other primarily sensitive above 15% contrast.

Keywords

ContrastParallel pathwaysCategorical perception
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 6 , Issue 6 , June 1991 , pp. 587 - 592
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bobak, P., Bodis-Wollner, I., Harnois, C. & Thornton, J. (1984). VEPs in human reveal high and low spatial contrast mechanisms. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 25, 980–983.Google Scholar
Bobak, P., Bodis-Wollner, I. & Marx, M.S. (1988). Cortical contrast gain control in human spatial vision. Journal of Physiology 405, 421–437.Google Scholar
Boynton, R.M. (1979). Human Color Vision. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.Google Scholar
Burr, D.C. (1987). Implication of the Craik–O'Brien illusion for brightness perception. Vision Research 27, 1903–1913.Google Scholar
Cannon, M.W. Jr (1979). Contrast sensation: a linear function of stimulus contrast. Vision Research 19, 1045–1052.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cannon, M.W. Jr (1984). A study of stimulus range effects in free modulus magnitude estimation. Vision Research 24, 1049–1055.Google Scholar
Cannon, M.W. Jr (1985). Perceived contrast in the fovea and periphery. Journal of the Optical Society of America A2, 1760–1768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cannon, M.W. Jr & Fullenk&, S.C. (1988). Perceived contrast and stimulus size: experiment and simulation. Vision Research 28, 695–709.Google Scholar
Derrington, A.M. & Lennie, P. (1984). Spatial and temporal contrast sensitivities of neurones in lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque. Journal of Physiology 357, 219–240.Google Scholar
Derrington, A.M., Krauskopf, J. & Lennie, P. (1984). Chromatic mechanisms in lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque. Journal of Physiology 357, 241–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeValois, R.L., Abramov, E. & Jacobs, G.H. (1966). Analysis of response patterns of LGN cells. Journal of the Optical Society of America 56, 966–977.Google Scholar
DeValois, R.L., Snodderly, D.M. JrYund, E.W. & Hepler, N. (1977). Responses of macaque lateral geniculate cells to luminance and color figures. Sensory Processes 1, 244–259.Google Scholar
Georgeson, M.A. & Sullivan, G.D. (1975). Contrast constancy: deblurring in human vision by spatial-frequency channels. Journal of Physiology 252, 627–656.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, A.P., Cannon, M.W. & Nelson, M.A. (1980). Suprathreshold processing of complex visual stimuli: evidence for linearity in contrast perception. Science 208, 619–621.Google Scholar
Gottesman, J., Rubin, G.S. & Legge, G.E. (1981). A power law for perceived contrast in human vision. Vision Research 21, 791–799.Google Scholar
Harnad, S., (1987). Psychophysical and cognitive aspects of categorical perception: a critical overview. In Categorical Perception: The Groundwork of Cognition, ed. Harnad, S., pp. 1–25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kaplan, E. & Shapley, R. (1982). X and Y cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque monkeys. Journal of Physiology 330, 125–143.Google Scholar
Kaplan, E. & Shapley, R. (1986). The primate retina contains two types of ganglion cells, with high and low contrast sensitivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the U.S.A. 83, 2755–2757.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kulikowski, J.J. (1976). Effective contrast constancy and linearity of contrast sensation. Vision Research 16, 1419–1431.Google Scholar
Legge, G.E. & Foley, J.M. (1980). Contrast masking in human vision. Journal of the Optical Society of America 70, 1458–1471.Google Scholar
Livingstone, M.S. & Hubel, D.J. (1987). Psychophysical evidence for separate channels for the perception of form, color, movement, and depth. Journal of Neuroscience 7, 3416–3468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logothetis, N.K., Schiller, P.H., Charles, E.R. & Hurlbert, A.C. (1990). Perceptual deficits and the activity of the color-opponent and broadband pathways at isoluminance. Science 247, 214–217.Google Scholar
Maunsell, J.H.R. & Van Essen, D.C. (1987). Topographic organization of the middle temporal visual area in the macaque monkey: representational biases and the relationship to callosal connections and myeloarchitectural boundaries. Journal of Comparative Neurology 266, 535–555.Google Scholar
McKee, S.P. & Welch, L. (1985). Sequential recruitment in the discrimination of velocity. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 2, 243–251.Google Scholar
Merigan, W.H. (1989). Chromatic and achromatic vision of macaques: role of the P pathway. Journal of Neuroscience 9, 776–783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merigan, W.H., Byrne, C.E. & Maunsell, J. (1989). Role of the magnocellular pathway in primate vision. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 15, 1256.Google Scholar
Merigan, W.H. & Eskin, T.A. (1986). Spatio-temporal loss of vision in macaques with severe loss of P retinal ganglion cells. Vision Research 26, 1751–1761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merigan, W.H. & Maunsell, J.H.R. (1990). Macaque vision after magnocellular lateral geniculate lesions. Visual Neuroscience 5, 347–352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nachmias, J. & Sansbury, R.V. (1974). Grating contrast: discrimination may be better than detection. Vision Research 14, 1039–1042.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nakayama, K. & Mackeben, M. (1982). Steady-state visual-evoked potentials in the alert primate. Vision Research 22, 1261–1271.Google Scholar
Pastore, R.E. (1987). Categorical perception: some psychophysical models. In Categorical Perception: The Groundwork of Cognition, ed. Harnad, S., pp. 29–52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quick, R.F. (1974). A vector-magnitude model for contrast detection. Kybernetik 16, 65–67.Google Scholar
Regan, D. & Beverley, K.I. (1983). Spatial-frequency discrimination and detection: comparison of postadaptation thresholds. Journal of the Optical Society of America 73, 1684–1690.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiller, P.H. & Malpeli, J.G. (1978). Functional specificity of lateral geniculate laminae of the rhesus monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology 41, 788–797.Google Scholar
Schiller, P.H. & Logothetis, N.K. (1990). The color-opponent and broadband channels of the primate visual system. Trends in Neuroscience 13, 392–398.Google Scholar
Schiller, P.H., Logothetis, N.K. & Charles, E.R. (1990a). Functions of the color-opponent and broadband channels of the visual system. Nature 343, 68–70.Google Scholar
Schiller, P.H., Logothetis, N.K. & Charles, E.R. (1990b). Role of the color-opponent and broadband channels in vision. Visual Neuroscience 5, 321–346.Google Scholar
Shapley, R. (1986). The importance of contrast for the activity of single neurons, the VEP, and perception. Vision Research 26, 45–61.Google Scholar
Shapley, R., Kaplan, E., & Soodak, R. (1981). Spatial summation and contrast sensitivity of X and Y cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the macaque. Nature 292, 543–545.Google Scholar
Spekreijse, H., Estevez, O. & Reits, D. (1977). Visual-evoked potentials and the physiological analysis of visual processes in man. In Visual-Evoked Potentials in Man: New Developments, ed. Desmedt, J., pp. 16–89. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ts'o, D.Y. & Gilbert, C.D. (1988). The organization of chromatic and spatial interactions in the primate striate cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 8, 1712–1727.Google Scholar
Wiesel, T.N. & Hubel, D.H. (1966). Spatial and chromatic interactions in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology 29, 1115–1156.Google Scholar
Winer, B.J. (1971). Statistical Principles in Experimental Design, second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wolkstein, M., Atkin, A. & Bodis-Wollner, I. (1980). Contrast sensitivity in retinal disease. Ophthalmology 87, 1140–1149.Google Scholar
Zollinger, H. (1988). Categorical color perception: influence of cultural factors on the differentiation of primary and derived basic color terms in color naming by Japanese children. Vision Research 28, 1379–1382.Google Scholar