Exposure-Time and Spatial-Frequency Effects in the Tilt Illusion

Perception ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 557-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian I O'Toole

The exposure durations of a vertical test line and a tilted inducing grating were varied and the tilt illusion thus generated was found to change as a function of this variation. Significant direct effects (acute-angle expansion) and indirect effects (acute-angle contraction) were found to occur at times consistent with Andrews's estimate of the time course of inhibition in the visual system when the inducing grating had a spatial frequency of 10 cycles deg−1. However, a 2 · 71 cycles deg−1 grating gave significant effects at exposure durations of 10 as well as 1000 ms, while in a further experiment a 10 · 91 cycles deg−1 grating gave significant effects at 1000 ms only. These results seem to suggest that orientation interactions thought to be due to inhibition (direct effect) and disinhibition (indirect effect) may occur within both sustained and transient channels with concomitant differences in time constants.

Perception ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wenderoth ◽  
Helen Beh

Orientation illusions occur when the inducing figure is a line or grating (the tilt illusion) or a square outline frame (the rod-and-frame illusion). In the range of inducing figure tilts between vertical and horizontal, the tilt illusion describes one cycle of positive (direct) and negative (indirect) effects but the rod-and-frame illusion describes two such cycles. In two experiments, angular functions of illusions were measured with the six possible inducing figures which result when two of the four sides of a square inducing frame are deleted. As expected, the parallel-sided frame amputations induced angular functions similar to the tilt illusion and these functions differed from those induced by the orthogonal-sided amputations. In agreement with previous findings on the nonadditivity of tilt illusions, the sum of angular functions induced by frame amputations, which together form a complete frame, were not always equivalent to the angular function induced by a complete frame, and there were asymmetries in the data for which neither of two simple hypotheses could adequately account. The discussion focuses upon properties of inducing figures which psychophysical hypotheses might need to consider in order to account for the shapes of angular functions of orientation illusions and, in particular, a distinction is drawn between the global orientation of the inducing figure and the orientations of its (local) component features. It is suggested that it might be fruitful if the tilt illusion and the rod-and-frame illusion were conceived of as illusions resulting from inducing figures composed of all or part of n gratings of spatial frequency fn intersecting at angles of 180°/ n.


Perception ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wenderoth ◽  
Syren Johnstone

Four experiments in which logarithmic intervals between 25 and 1600 ms were used for stimulus duration in tests for the tilt illusion are reported. It is demonstrated that the direct and the indirect tilt illusions both increase in magnitude inversely with length of stimulus presentation. The data suggest that whereas the direct effect peaks with a value of about +7° at the shortest flash duration used (25 ms), peak indirect effects (of about +2°) do not occur at this duration. In addition, whereas direct effects level out after 100 ms stimulus exposure times, to the usual magnitude obtained with long presentations (about + 2°), indirect effects reach their standard magnitude (−0.5° to −1.0°) later, at exposures of about 400 ms. Even at very short flash durations, a luminance square frame surrounding the illusion display reduces the indirect effect by two thirds of its magnitude but has no effect at all on the direct effect. It is suggested that direct effects arise early in visual processing, in area V1, where there are transient mechanisms and where corruption of orientation analysis by the inducing grating would occur prior to later, extrastriate, global analysis of the surrounding peripheral frame. Indirect effects, on the other hand, may arise later, along the sustained parvocellular colour—form pathway, where more global processing occurs and susceptibility to surrounding fields might be expected.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Wilsey

Top predators have effects that can ‘cascade down’ on lower trophic levels. Because of this cascading effect, it matters how many trophic levels are present. Predators are either ‘sit and wait’ or ‘active’. Wolves are top predators in temperate grasslands and can alter species composition of smaller-sized predators, prey, and woody and herbaceous plant species, either through direct effects or indirect effects (‘Ecology of Fear’). In human derived grasslands, invertebrate predators fill a similar ecological role as wolves. Migrating populations of herbivores tend to be more limited by food than non-migratory populations. The phenology and synchrony of births vary among prey species in a way that is consistent with an adaptation to predation. Precocious species have highly synchronous birth dates to satiate predators. Non-precocious species (‘hiders’) have asynchronous births. Results from studies that manipulate both predators and food support the hypothesis that bottom-up and top-down effects interact.


1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Titz ◽  
Bernhard U. Keller

Titz, Stefan and Bernhard U. Keller. Rapidly deactivating AMPA receptors determine excitatory synaptic transmission to interneurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius from rat. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 82–91, 1997. Excitatory synaptic transmission was investigated in interneurons of the parvocellular nucleus tractus solitarius (pNTS) by performing patch-clamp experiments in thin slice preparations from rat brain stem. Stimulation of single afferent fibers evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) mediated by glutamate receptors of the dl-α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-propionic acid (AMPA) and N-methyl-d-aspartate types. AMPA-receptor-mediated EPSCs displayed decay time constants of 3.5 ± 1.2 (SD) ms (13 cells), which were slow compared with EPSC decay time constants in neurons of the cerebellum or hippocampus. Slow EPSC decay was not explained by dendritic filtering, because the passive membrane properties of pNTS interneurons provided favorable voltage-clamp conditions. Also, the slowness of EPSC decay did not result from slow deactivation of AMPA receptors (0.7 ± 0.2 ms, 5 cells), which was investigated during rapid application of agonist to outside-out patches. Comparison of AMPA receptor kinetics with EPSC decay time constants suggested that the slow time course of EPSCs resulted from the prolonged presence of glutamate in the synaptic cleft.


2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (6) ◽  
pp. 3537-3547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Weng ◽  
Chun-I Yeh ◽  
Carl R. Stoelzel ◽  
Jose-Manuel Alonso

Each point in visual space is encoded at the level of the thalamus by a group of neighboring cells with overlapping receptive fields. Here we show that the receptive fields of these cells differ in size and response latency but not at random. We have found that in the cat lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) the receptive field size and response latency of neighboring neurons are significantly correlated: the larger the receptive field, the faster the response to visual stimuli. This correlation is widespread in LGN. It is found in groups of cells belonging to the same type (e.g., Y cells), and of different types (i.e., X and Y), within a specific layer or across different layers. These results indicate that the inputs from the multiple geniculate afferents that converge onto a cortical cell (approximately 30) are likely to arrive in a sequence determined by the receptive field size of the geniculate afferents. Recent studies have shown that the peak of the spatial frequency tuning of a cortical cell shifts toward higher frequencies as the response progresses in time. Our results are consistent with the idea that these shifts in spatial frequency tuning arise from differences in the response time course of the thalamic inputs.


1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 2120-2129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Legendre

Electrophysiological recordings of outside-out patches to fast-flow applications of glycine were made on patches derived from the Mauthner cells of the 50-h-old zebrafish larva. As for glycinergic miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs), depolarizing the patch produced a broadening of the transient outside-out current evoked by short applications (1 ms) of a saturating concentration of glycine (3 mM). When the outside-out patch was depolarized from −50 to +20 mV, the peak current varied linearly with voltage. A 1-ms application of 3 mM glycine evoked currents that activated rapidly and deactivated biexponentially with time constants of ≈5 and ≈30 ms (holding potential of −50 mV). These two decay time constants were increased by depolarization. The fast deactivation time constant increased e-fold per 95 mV. The relative amplitude of the two decay components did not significantly vary with voltage. The fast component represented 64.2 ± 2.8% of the total current at −50 mV and 54.1 ± 10% at +20 mV. The 20–80% rise time of these responses did not show any voltage dependence, suggesting that the opening rate constant is insensitive to voltage. The 20–80% rise time was 0.2 ms at −70 mV and 0.22 ms at +20 mV. Responses evoked by 100–200 ms application of a low concentration of glycine (0.1 mM) had a biphasic rising phase reflecting the complex gating behavior of the glycine receptor. The time constant of these two components and their relative amplitude did not change with voltage, suggesting that modal shifts in the glycine-activated channel gating mode are not sensitive to the membrane potential. Using a Markov model to simulate glycine receptor gating behavior, we were able to mimic the voltage-dependent change in the deactivation time course of the responses evoked by 1-ms application of 3 mM glycine. This kinetics model incorporates voltage-dependent closing rate constants. It provides a good description of the time course of the onset of responses evoked by the application of a low concentration of glycine at all membrane potentials tested.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-323
Author(s):  
Zsolt Sándor

This article presents the anticipated safety effects of the implantation of section control in Hungary. The proposed results were originated from international studies and the local circumstances. Effects are depending on the control coverage and the magnitude of the sanctions. Direct (short term benefits) and indirect effects (long term benefits) can be identified. Direct effects are the decreasing of accident numbers, while indirect effects are the decrease of other externalities of transport like environmental loads. Based on the results the implementation cost of the enforcement system is measureable with the proposed social cost savings come from the decreasing number of accidents.


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