scholarly journals Distinct patterns of surround modulation in V1 and hMT+

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gorkem Er ◽  
Zahide Pamir ◽  
Huseyin Boyaci

AbstractModulation of a neuron’s responses by the stimuli presented outside of its classical receptive field is ubiquitous in the visual system. This “surround modulation” mechanism is believed to be critical for efficient processing and leads to many well-known perceptual effects. The details of surround modulation, how-ever, are still not fully understood. One of the open questions is related to the differences in surround modulation mechanisms in different cortical areas, and their interactions. Here we study patterns of surround modulation in primary visual cortex (V1) and middle temporal complex (hMT+) utilizing a well-studied effect in motion perception, where human observers’ ability to discriminate the drift direction of a grating improves as its size gets bigger if the grating has a low contrast, and deteriorates if it has a high contrast. We first replicated the findings in the literature with a behavioral experiment using small and large (1.06 and 8.05 degrees of visual angle) drifting gratings with either low (2%) or high (99%) contrast presented at the periphery. Next, using functional MRI, we found that in V1 with increasing size cortical responses increased at both contrast levels, but they increased more at high contrast. Whereas in hMT+ with increasing size cortical responses remained unchanged at high contrast, and increased at low contrast. These findings show that surround modulation in V1 and hMT+ are distinct. Furthermore these findings provide evidence that the size-contrast interaction in motion perception is likely to originate in hMT+.

Author(s):  
Russell L. Steere ◽  
Eric F. Erbe ◽  
J. Michael Moseley

We have designed and built an electronic device which compares the resistance of a defined area of vacuum evaporated material with a variable resistor. When the two resistances are matched, the device automatically disconnects the primary side of the substrate transformer and stops further evaporation.This approach to controlled evaporation in conjunction with the modified guns and evaporation source permits reliably reproducible multiple Pt shadow films from a single Pt wrapped carbon point source. The reproducibility from consecutive C point sources is also reliable. Furthermore, the device we have developed permits us to select a predetermined resistance so that low contrast high-resolution shadows, heavy high contrast shadows, or any grade in between can be selected at will. The reproducibility and quality of results are demonstrated in Figures 1-4 which represent evaporations at various settings of the variable resistor.


Author(s):  
María Carmen Sánchez-González ◽  
Raquel García-Oliver ◽  
José-María Sánchez-González ◽  
María-José Bautista-Llamas ◽  
José-Jesús Jiménez-Rejano ◽  
...  

In our work, we determined the value of visual acuity (VA) with ETDRS charts (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study). The purpose of the study was to determine the measurement reliabilities, calculating the correlation coefficient interclass (ICC), the value of the error associated with the measure (SEM), and the minimal detectable change (MDC). Forty healthy subjects took part. The mean age was 23.5 ± 3.1 (19 to 26) years. Visual acuities were measured with ETDRS charts (96% ETDRS chart nº 2140) and (10% SLOAN Contrast Eye Test chart nº 2153). The measurements were made (at 4 m) under four conditions: Firstly, photopic conditions with high contrast (HC) and low contrast (LC) and after 15 min of visual rest, mesopic conditions with high and low contrast. Under photopic conditions and high contrast, the ICC = 0.866 and decreased to 0.580 when the luminosity and contrast decreased. The % MDC in the four conditions was always less than 10%. It was minor under photopic conditions and HC (5.83) and maximum in mesopic conditions and LC (9.70). Our results conclude a high reliability of the ETDRS test, which is higher in photopic and high contrast conditions and lower when the luminosity and contrast decreases.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1847-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. W. van Rossum ◽  
Matthijs A. A. van der Meer ◽  
Dengke Xiao ◽  
Mike W. Oram

Neurons in the visual cortex receive a large amount of input from recurrent connections, yet the functional role of these connections remains unclear. Here we explore networks with strong recurrence in a computational model and show that short-term depression of the synapses in the recurrent loops implements an adaptive filter. This allows the visual system to respond reliably to deteriorated stimuli yet quickly to high-quality stimuli. For low-contrast stimuli, the model predicts long response latencies, whereas latencies are short for high-contrast stimuli. This is consistent with physiological data showing that in higher visual areas, latencies can increase more than 100 ms at low contrast compared to high contrast. Moreover, when presented with briefly flashed stimuli, the model predicts stereotypical responses that outlast the stimulus, again consistent with physiological findings. The adaptive properties of the model suggest that the abundant recurrent connections found in visual cortex serve to adapt the network's time constant in accordance with the stimulus and normalizes neuronal signals such that processing is as fast as possible while maintaining reliability.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (9) ◽  
pp. e153-e163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Racine ◽  
Anaïs Viry ◽  
Fabio Becce ◽  
Sabine Schmidt ◽  
Alexandre Ba ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (29) ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
Sahar Azimian ◽  
Farah Torkamani Azar ◽  
Seyed Ali Amirshahi

For a long time different studies have focused on introducing new image enhancement techniques. While these techniques show a good performance and are able to increase the quality of images, little attention has been paid to how and when overenhancement occurs in the image. This could possibly be linked to the fact that current image quality metrics are not able to accurately evaluate the quality of enhanced images. In this study we introduce the Subjective Enhanced Image Dataset (SEID) in which 15 observers are asked to enhance the quality of 30 reference images which are shown to them once at a low and another time at a high contrast. Observers were instructed to enhance the quality of the images to the point that any more enhancement will result in a drop in the image quality. Results show that there is an agreement between observers on when over-enhancement occurs and this point is closely similar no matter if the high contrast or the low contrast image is enhanced.


1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Victor ◽  
Mary M. Conte ◽  
Keith P. Purpura

AbstractWe recorded visual evoked potentials in response to square-wave contrast-reversal checkerboards undergoing a transition in the mean contrast level. Checkerboards were modulated at 4.22 Hz (8.45-Hz reversal rate). After each set of 16 cycles of reversals, stimulus contrast abruptly switched between a “high” contrast level (0.06 to 1.0) to a “low” contrast level (0.03 to 0.5). Higher contrasts attenuated responses to lower contrasts by up to a factor of 2 during the period immediately following the contrast change. Contrast-response functions derived from the initial second following a conditioning contrast shifted by a factor of 2–4 along the contrast axis. For low-contrast stimuli, response phase was an advancing function of the contrast level in the immediately preceding second. For high-contrast stimuli, response phase was independent of the prior contrast history. Steady stimulation for periods as long as 1 min produced only minor effects on response amplitude, and no detectable effects on response phase. These observations delineate the dynamics of a contrast gain control in human vision.


2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (20) ◽  
pp. 2569-2571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengchong Xue ◽  
Peng Chen ◽  
Junhui Jia ◽  
Qiuxia Xu ◽  
Jiabao Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

A triphenylamine-based benzoxazole derivative (BVDP) as a typical D–π–A molecule could be used as a low contrast piezofluorochromic material with a spectral red-shift of 29 nm. However, whenBVDPbound a proton to formBVDP+H, a high contrast piezofluorochromism (Δλ= 75 nm) could be observed.


Perception ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Bowling ◽  
William Lovegrove ◽  
Barry Mapperson

The visual persistence of sinusoidal gratings of varying spatial frequency and contrast was measured. It was found that the persistence of low-contrast gratings was longer than that of high-contrast stimuli for all spatial frequencies investigated. At higher contrast levels of 1 and 4 cycles deg−1 gratings, a tendency for persistence to be independent of contrast was observed. For 12 cycles deg−1 gratings, however, persistence continued to decrease with increasing contrast. These results are compared with recently published data on other temporal responses, and are discussed in terms of the different properties of sustained and transient channels.


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