Effects of Adaptation on Perceived Location for First-Order and Second-Order Visual Stimuli

Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 180-180
Author(s):  
D Whitaker ◽  
P V McGraw ◽  
D M Levi

Observers adapted to a stimulus consisting of two vertically separated antisymmetric Gaussian blobs. This was immediately followed by a 3-Gaussian-blob alignment task, whose outer two elements were spatially coincident with those of the adapting stimulus. The adapting antisymmetric stimulus resulted in a perceived misalignment of the central element of the test stimulus, and the magnitude of this perceived offset was established by the method of constant stimuli. The apparent offset increased as a power function of the adapting stimulus contrast at all test contrast levels. Perceived offset was greater for low-contrast test stimuli, although dependence upon the contrast of the adapting stimulus was less pronounced. When expressed as a function of adapting/test contrast ratio, data for all conditions collapsed together to form a single, saturating function which was well described by the formula k/[ k'+(1/ratio)], where k and k' are constants. Thus, at high adapting/test ratios, the function saturated at an offset of k/ k'. Adaptation effects were measured for luminance-defined first-order stimuli, and also stimuli defined by variations in texture contrast, which can be termed second-order. The effects of adaptation on perceived offset for second-order stimuli were at least as large as those for first-order, but little or no crossover adaptation occurred, ie adapting to a second-order antisymmetric stimulus produced no effect on a first-order test stimulus and vice versa. This suggests that the mechanisms involved in the localisation of first-order and second-order stimuli are independent.

Author(s):  
Zhong-Lin Lu ◽  
George Sperling

Second-order texture illusions, corresponding to Mach bands, Chevreul, and Craik-O’Brien-Cornsweet illusions in brightness perception, are generated by replacing luminance modulations in the classic stimuli with modulations of texture contrast. Whereas the classic (first-order) illusions exhibit changes in lightness or darkness near boundaries, the second-order stimuli exhibit analogous perceptual effects that are increases or decreases in apparent texture contrast with no concomitant change in apparent brightness. The magnitudes of the second-order texture-contrast changes are comparable to brightness changes in the classic first-order illusions. These results indicate that second-order (texture) illusions involve spatial interactions that are remarkably similar to those in first-order (luminance) processing.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Crewther ◽  
Jacqueline Rutkowski ◽  
David Crewther

AbstractThe neural basis of dyslexia remains unresolved, despite many theories relating dyslexia to dysfunction in visual magnocellular and auditory temporal processing, cerebellar dysfunction, attentional deficits, as well as excessive neural noise. Recent research identifies perceptual speed as a common factor, integrating several of these systems. Optimal perceptual speed invokes transient attention as a necessary component, and change detection in gap paradigm tasks is impaired in those with dyslexia. This research has also identified an overall better change detection for targets presented in the upper compared with lower visual fields. Despite the magnocellular visual pathway being implicated in the aetiology of dyslexia over 30 years ago, objective physiological measures have been lacking. Thus, we employed nonlinear visual evoked potential (VEP) techniques which generate second order kernel terms specific for magno and parvocellular processing as a means to assessing the physiological status of poor readers (PR, n=12) compared with good readers (GR, n=16) selected from children with a mean age of 10yr. The first and second order Wiener kernels using multifocal VEP were recorded from a 4° foveal stimulus patch as well as for upper and lower visual field peripheral arcs. Foveal responses showed little difference between GR and PR for low contrast stimulation, except for the second slice of the second order kernel where lower peak amplitudes were recorded for PR vs GR. At high contrast, there was a trend to smaller first order kernel amplitudes for short latency peaks of the PR vs GR. In addition, there were significant latency differences for the first negativity in the first two slices of the second order kernel. In terms of peripheral stimulation, lower visual field response amplitudes were larger compared with upper visual field responses, for both PR and GR. A trend to larger second/first order ratio for magnocellularly driven responses suggests the possibility of lesser neural efficiency in the periphery for the PR compared with the GR. Stronger lower field peripheral response may relate to better upper visual field change detection performance when target visibility is controlled through flicking masks. In conclusion, early cortical magnocellular processing at low contrast was normal in those with dyslexia, while cortical activity related to parvocellular afferents was reduced. In addition, the study demonstrated a physiological basis for upper versus lower visual field differences related to magnocellular function.


2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (10) ◽  
pp. 2414-2425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharba Bandyopadhyay ◽  
Eric D. Young

Studies of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) have focused on spectral processing because of the complex spectral receptive fields of the DCN. However, temporal fluctuations in natural signals convey important information, including information about moving sound sources or movements of the external ear in animals like cats. Here, we investigate the temporal filtering properties of DCN principal neurons through the use of temporal weighting functions that allow flexible analysis of nonlinearities and time variation in temporal response properties. First-order temporal receptive fields derived from the neurons are sufficient to characterize their response properties to low-contrast (3-dB standard deviation) stimuli. Larger contrasts require the second-order terms. Allowing temporal variation of the parameters of the first-order model or adding a component representing refractoriness improves predictions by the model by relatively small amounts. The importance of second-order components of the model is shown through simulations of nonlinear envelope synchronization behavior across sound level. The temporal model can be combined with a spectral model to predict tuning to the speed and direction of moving sounds.


Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 17-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
O I Ukkonen ◽  
A M Derrington

We wanted to know whether the mechanisms that discriminate the motion of first-order patterns (defined by spatial variations of luminance) differ from those that detect the motion of non-Fourier or second-order patterns (defined by spatial variations of contrast). To address this question we tested whether motion discrimination performance of first-order and second-order patterns was affected by a pedestal (Lu and Sperling, 1995 Vision Research35 2697 – 2722). A pedestal is a static replica of a moving pattern. We used pedestals with contrast or modulation depth twice the value at which it becomes possible to discriminate the direction of a moving pattern. A two-interval forced-choice task was used to determine how direction discrimination varies with contrast of sine gratings (1 cycle deg−1) and modulation depth of amplitude-modulated gratings presented either alone or with a pedestal. The amplitude-modulated gratings had a 5 cycles deg−1 carrier modulated at 1 cycle deg−1. Three different temporal frequencies (1, 3, and 12 Hz) were studied. Performance with sine gratings was unaffected by the pedestal at all temporal frequencies tested. For amplitude-modulated gratings the pedestal raised the modulation depth at which it became possible to discriminate the direction of motion. This elevation in threshold decreased when the mean contrast of the pattern was high. This result shows that immunity to pedestals of texture-contrast patterns (Lu and Sperling, 1996 Journal of the Optical Society of America13 2305 – 2318) does not generalise to other non-Fourier motion stimuli.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (04/05) ◽  
pp. 315-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Momose ◽  
K. Komiya ◽  
A. Uchiyama

Abstract:The relationship between chromatically modulated stimuli and visual evoked potentials (VEPs) was considered. VEPs of normal subjects elicited by chromatically modulated stimuli were measured under several color adaptations, and their binary kernels were estimated. Up to the second-order, binary kernels obtained from VEPs were so characteristic that the VEP-chromatic modulation system showed second-order nonlinearity. First-order binary kernels depended on the color of the stimulus and adaptation, whereas second-order kernels showed almost no difference. This result indicates that the waveforms of first-order binary kernels reflect perceived color (hue). This supports the suggestion that kernels of VEPs include color responses, and could be used as a probe with which to examine the color visual system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Kelly James Clark

In Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican’s challenging and provocative essay, we hear a considerably longer, more scholarly and less melodic rendition of John Lennon’s catchy tune—without religion, or at least without first-order supernaturalisms (the kinds of religion we find in the world), there’d be significantly less intra-group violence. First-order supernaturalist beliefs, as defined by Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican (hereafter M&M), are “beliefs that claim unique authority for some particular religious tradition in preference to all others” (3). According to M&M, first-order supernaturalist beliefs are exclusivist, dogmatic, empirically unsupported, and irrational. Moreover, again according to M&M, we have perfectly natural explanations of the causes that underlie such beliefs (they seem to conceive of such natural explanations as debunking explanations). They then make a case for second-order supernaturalism, “which maintains that the universe in general, and the religious sensitivities of humanity in particular, have been formed by supernatural powers working through natural processes” (3). Second-order supernaturalism is a kind of theism, more closely akin to deism than, say, Christianity or Buddhism. It is, as such, universal (according to contemporary psychology of religion), empirically supported (according to philosophy in the form of the Fine-Tuning Argument), and beneficial (and so justified pragmatically). With respect to its pragmatic value, second-order supernaturalism, according to M&M, gets the good(s) of religion (cooperation, trust, etc) without its bad(s) (conflict and violence). Second-order supernaturalism is thus rational (and possibly true) and inconducive to violence. In this paper, I will examine just one small but important part of M&M’s argument: the claim that (first-order) religion is a primary motivator of violence and that its elimination would eliminate or curtail a great deal of violence in the world. Imagine, they say, no religion, too.Janusz Salamon offers a friendly extension or clarification of M&M’s second-order theism, one that I think, with emendations, has promise. He argues that the core of first-order religions, the belief that Ultimate Reality is the Ultimate Good (agatheism), is rational (agreeing that their particular claims are not) and, if widely conceded and endorsed by adherents of first-order religions, would reduce conflict in the world.While I favor the virtue of intellectual humility endorsed in both papers, I will argue contra M&M that (a) belief in first-order religion is not a primary motivator of conflict and violence (and so eliminating first-order religion won’t reduce violence). Second, partly contra Salamon, who I think is half right (but not half wrong), I will argue that (b) the religious resources for compassion can and should come from within both the particular (often exclusivist) and the universal (agatheistic) aspects of religious beliefs. Finally, I will argue that (c) both are guilty, as I am, of the philosopher’s obsession with belief. 


2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis N. Kevill ◽  
Byoung-Chun Park ◽  
Jin Burm Kyong

The kinetics of nucleophilic substitution reactions of 1-(phenoxycarbonyl)pyridinium ions, prepared with the essentially non-nucleophilic/non-basic fluoroborate as the counterion, have been studied using up to 1.60 M methanol in acetonitrile as solvent and under solvolytic conditions in 2,2,2-trifluoroethan-1-ol (TFE) and its mixtures with water. Under the non- solvolytic conditions, the parent and three pyridine-ring-substituted derivatives were studied. Both second-order (first-order in methanol) and third-order (second-order in methanol) kinetic contributions were observed. In the solvolysis studies, since solvent ionizing power values were almost constant over the range of aqueous TFE studied, a Grunwald–Winstein equation treatment of the specific rates of solvolysis for the parent and the 4-methoxy derivative could be carried out in terms of variations in solvent nucleophilicity, and an appreciable sensitivity to changes in solvent nucleophilicity was found.


Author(s):  
Uriah Kriegel

Brentano’s theory of judgment serves as a springboard for his conception of reality, indeed for his ontology. It does so, indirectly, by inspiring a very specific metaontology. To a first approximation, ontology is concerned with what exists, metaontology with what it means to say that something exists. So understood, metaontology has been dominated by three views: (i) existence as a substantive first-order property that some things have and some do not, (ii) existence as a formal first-order property that everything has, and (iii) existence as a second-order property of existents’ distinctive properties. Brentano offers a fourth and completely different approach to existence talk, however, one which falls naturally out of his theory of judgment. The purpose of this chapter is to present and motivate Brentano’s approach.


Author(s):  
Tim Button ◽  
Sean Walsh

In this chapter, the focus shifts from numbers to sets. Again, no first-order set theory can hope to get anywhere near categoricity, but Zermelo famously proved the quasi-categoricity of second-order set theory. As in the previous chapter, we must ask who is entitled to invoke full second-order logic. That question is as subtle as before, and raises the same problem for moderate modelists. However, the quasi-categorical nature of Zermelo's Theorem gives rise to some specific questions concerning the aims of axiomatic set theories. Given the status of Zermelo's Theorem in the philosophy of set theory, we include a stand-alone proof of this theorem. We also prove a similar quasi-categoricity for Scott-Potter set theory, a theory which axiomatises the idea of an arbitrary stage of the iterative hierarchy.


Author(s):  
Huineng Wang ◽  
Yanfeng Guo ◽  
Yungang Fu ◽  
Dan Li

This study introduces the opinion of the corrugation hierarchy to develop the second-order corrugation paperboard, and explore the deformation characteristics, yield strength, and energy absorbing capacity under out-of-plane static evenly compression loading by experimental and analytical approaches. On the basis of the inclined-straight strut elements of corrugation unit and plastic hinge lines, the yield and crushing strengths of corrugation unit were analyzed. This study shows that as the compressive stress increases, the second-order corrugation core layer is firstly crushed, and the first-order corrugation structures gradually compacted until the failure of entire structure. The corrugation type has an obvious influence on the yield strength of the corrugation sandwich panel, and the yield strength of B-flute corrugation sandwich panel is wholly higher than that of the C-flute structure. At the same compression rate, the flute type has a significant impact on energy absorption, and the C-flute second-order corrugation sandwich panel has better bearing capacity than the B-flute structure. The second-order corrugation sandwich panel has a better bearing capacity than the first-order structure. The static compression rate has little effect on the yield strength and deformation mode. However, with the increase of the static compression rate, the corrugation sandwich panel has a better cushioning energy absorption and material utilization rate.


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