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Biomedical subjects

D Regan

Publications and source records attributed to D Regan.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Shape discrimination and the judgement of perfect symmetry: dissociation of shape from size.

We measured the accuracy with which subjects judged that a square or circle was perfectly symmetrical i.e. that aspect ratio (a/b) was exactly unity (where a and b were, respectively, the vertical and horizontal dimensions). Errors were remarkably small, ranging from 0.7 to 0.4% for the judgement of squareness and from 1.4 to < 0.1% for the judgement of circularity. Precision in judging aspect ratio was measured by requiring subjects to judge whether the aspect ratio (a/b)TEST of a test rectangle was greater or less than the aspect ratio (a/b)REF of a reference rectangle. Similar measurements were made for elliptical targets. To ensure that subjects based judgements on aspect ratio rather than a, b or (a-b), the area of each successive presentation was varied randomly. The just-discriminable percentage change of aspect ratio was as low as 1.6% at (a/b)REF = 1.0 (i.e. for a square or circular reference), and rose progressively as (a/b)REF was made progressively larger or smaller than 1.0. Aspect ratio discrimination threshold was independent of mean area over a sixteen-fold range of 0.25-4.0 deg2. For both rectangles and ellipses, the best value of aspect ratio discrimination threshold corresponded to a precision of encoding a and b of 14 sec arc or better. In further experiments, the method of constant stimuli was used to measure an aspect ratio aftereffect produced by adapting separately to rectangles of (a/b)ADAPT equal to 1.5, 1.0 and (1/1.5). Similar aftereffects were obtained whether the area of the test stimulus was fixed or varied randomly from trial to trial, and whether the test stimulus was rectangular or elliptical. The aftereffect could not be explained in terms of fatigue of neurons sensitive to linear dimension a or b. Nor could the aftereffect be explained in terms of the "contour repulsion" hypothesis, or in terms of orientation discrimination. We conclude (1) that the same neural mechanism determines aspect ratio discrimination threshold for rectangles and ellipses and (2) that this mechanism is sensitive to aspect ratio independently of linear dimensions. We propose that aspect ratio perception is determined by the balance of excitation of two pools of neurons that are selectively sensitive to different, but overlapping ranges of (a/b). One pool prefers aspect ratios > 1.0 and the others prefer aspect ratios < 1.0. We suppose that the two pools respond identically to changes in area (a * b).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMed1992

Dissociation of orientation discrimination from form detection for motion-defined bars and luminance-defined bars: effects of dot lifetime and presentation duration.

A stationary bar-shaped area that was perfectly camouflaged within a dot pattern was rendered visible by moving the dots inside and outside the bar at equal and opposite speeds. Orientation discrimination for this motion-defined (MD) bar was compared with orientation discrimination for a luminance-defined (LD) bar created by switching off all dots outside the bar. The best values of orientation discrimination threshold were similar for MD and LD bars at long presentation durations and long dot lifetimes. But, as presentation duration or dot lifetime was reduced below 1.0 sec, orientation discrimination threshold for MD bars increased at an accelerating rate, while discrimination for LD bars was comparatively unaffected. However, these effects of presentation duration and dot lifetime were largely due to changes in bar visibility. When bar visibility was normalised relative to the relevant bar detection threshold, the effect of presentation duration upon orientation discrimination was abolished for both MD and LD bars, and the effect of dot lifetime was abolished or even reversed. These observations dissociate detection and discrimination for MD and LD form. We suggest that orientation discrimination for MD and LD bars is determined by opponent-orientation mechanisms whose performance is not directly affected by presentation duration, nor degraded by reducing dot lifetime.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Visual judgements and misjudgements in cricket, and the art of flight.

To hit the ball with the centre of percussion of a bat so that the ball goes where he intends it to go, a batsman must estimate visually where the ball will be at a specific future time (when), and coordinate his swing accordingly. A number of visual cues are available to the batsman. Retinal image information provides an accurate indication of time to contact (ie when), even when the trajectory of the ball is inclined to the line of sight, and there is evidence that the human visual system is specifically sensitive to time-to-contact information. But only part of the necessary information about position (ie where) is available to the batsman. If the batsman's head is directly in the line of flight, the velocity ratio of the retinal images in the left and right eyes provides a precise cue to the trajectory of the ball in the horizontal plane. However, humans have only poor visual sensitivities to the absolute distance and to the line-of-sight velocity of a ball. Therefore, a batsman has inadequate retinal image information about the absolute vertical velocity of a ball. It is suggested in this paper that batsmen supplement inadequate retinal image information about where the ball will hit the ground with prior knowledge built up over the preceding few deliveries. Some slow bowlers can induce the batsman to misjudge where the ball will hit the ground. I suggest that these bowlers manipulate the flight of the ball so as to induce the batsman to supplement his inadequate retinal image information with inappropriate prior knowledge, and thus to misinterpret the vertical angular speed of the retinal image of the ball.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Method for identifying amblyopes whose reduced line acuity is caused by defective selection and/or control of gaze.

Three visual tests were administered to a group of 15 amblyopic children, 15 adult amblyopes and two age-matched control groups, each of 20 subjects. Test results comprised visual acuity for recognizing high contrast letters presented in line (i.e. Snellen) format, isolated-letter format and repeat-letter format. The classical Snellen format confounds the effects of gaze control defects with the effects of adjacent contours on a patient's ability to recognize a foveated letter. We designed a repeat-letter format intended to unconfound these effects. The repeat letter format is much less sensitive to gaze control defects, and somewhat more sensitive to adjacent contour interactions than is the Snellen format. We report that amblyopic eyes can be subdivided empirically into three repeat-letter categories: repeat-letter acuity significantly better than Snellen acuity; repeat letter acuity not significantly different from Snellen acuity; and repeat letter acuity significantly worse than Snellen acuity. We report that this subdivision cuts across the clinical subclassification of amblyopia and also across the crowding/no crowding subclassification. We suggest that, rather than abnormal lateral interactions, defective selection and/or control of gaze is an important factor in depressed visual acuity in amblyopic eyes of the first repeat-letter category but not for the third type, in which abnormal lateral interactions may be important. To test the hypothesis that the response to patching and refractive therapy may be less satisfactory in our first category of amblyopic eyes, we are carrying out a prospective study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Visual processing of motion-defined form: selective failure in patients with parietotemporal lesions.

The following psychophysical data were obtained from 13 patients with unilateral cerebral hemispheric lesions and 20 control subjects: speed thresholds for detecting and for recognizing motion-defined letters, speed thresholds for detecting coherent motion and for discriminating its direction, and visual acuity for recognizing letters of 96% and 11% contrast. Acuity was between 6/6 and 6/3 for all patients. Four patients showed a selective loss of ability to recognize motion-defined letters, while the ability to detect those same letters was spared, as was the ability to detect coherent motion and discriminate its direction (type I loss). Three patients showed a loss of ability both to recognize and to detect motion-defined letters, while the ability to detect coherent motion and discriminate its direction was spared (type II loss). All seven patients who failed to recognize motion-defined letters had extensive lesions in parietotemporal white matter underlying Brodmann cortical areas 18, 19, 37, 39, 21, and 22. The lesion was in the left hemisphere for three patients and in the right hemisphere for the remaining four. The region of overlap in these seven patients was not invaded by the lesion in any of the other six patients, and none of these six patients showed a loss of ability to recognize motion-defined letters. Three patients showed selective loss of acuity for low-contrast letters with normal Snellen acuity. The lesions in these three patients extended more posteriorly than in any other patient, and their region of overlap was in white matter underlying areas 18 and 19. We conclude that (1) the loss of ability to recognize letters in seven patients was specific to motion-defined letters rather than being a general loss of letter-recognition ability, (2) this visual loss was specific to motion-defined form rather than being a general failure of motion processing, and (3) the visual loss was not produced by lesions that did not involve the localized cerebral region specified above. To explain the existence of type I and of type II loss with sparing of the detection and discrimination of coherent motion, we propose that motion information is processed hierarchically. We further suggest that homologs of the socalled motion and color/form pathways (i.e., areas V1/MT/MST/7a and areas V1/V4/IT) are interconnected to form a distributed system that is important for the recognition of motion-defined form.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Defective processing of motion-defined form in the fellow eye of patients with unilateral amblyopia.

The following three measurements were made on a group of 20 pediatric and 5 adult patients with unilateral amblyopia: (1) speed threshold for recognizing motion-defined dotted letters; (2) recognition acuity for isolated solid letters of 4% contrast; and (3) Snellen line acuity for high-contrast letters. Normal limits were established with a group of 30 pediatric and 10 adult control subjects. The main finding was that, in amblyopic children, a high percentage (83%, 15 of 18) of fellow eyes showed a degraded ability to recognize motion-defined letters, even though Snellen acuity and 4% letter acuity were normal for age. The fellow eyes of all nine patients with strabismic amblyopia showed this pattern of loss, as did four of six fellow eyes of patients with anisometropic amblyopia and two of three fellow eyes of patients with anisometropic plus strabismic amblyopia. Only two clinically unaffected eyes were normal for motion-defined letters. These eyes belonged to patients with anisometropic amblyopia. Eighteen of the 19 previously amblyopic eyes tested were abnormal for motion-defined letters even though Snellen acuity was within normal limits for 6 of these eyes. In adults, only one of five fellow eyes failed the motion-defined letter test. It was concluded that the degradation of form perception associated with amblyopia can be different for luminance-defined and motion-defined form and that defective processing of motion-defined form is common in the fellow eyes of children with unilateral amblyopia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Shape discrimination for motion-defined and contrast-defined form: squareness in special.

Shape discrimination was measured for: (i) two-dimensional rectangular targets that were perfectly camouflaged within a stationary pattern of random dots and rendered visible by relative motion of the dots, and (ii) similar dotted rectangles that were rendered visible by luminance contrast. Shape discrimination was disconfounded from size discrimination by requiring subjects to discriminate the aspect ratios of rectangles whose areas were altered independently of aspect ratio. When dot speed and contrast were both high, the aspect-ratio discrimination threshold was as acute for motion-defined (MD) rectangles as for contrast-defined (CD) rectangles and, at 2-3%, corresponded to a change of side length of about 24 s arc compared to a mean dot separation of 360 s arc. Discrimination of MD rectangles collapsed at low dot speeds and could not be measured at speeds less than about 0.03-0.08 deg s-1, but discrimination of CD rectangles was almost unaffected by dot speed. The aspect-ratio discrimination threshold was lowest for a square and progressively increased as the rectangle became more asymmetric. It is suggested that the visual system contains a mechanism that compares the separations of pairs of contours along different azimuths, and that, during visual development, this shape-discrimination processing of MD and CD targets is driven by the same environmental and behavioural pressures towards a common end point. The human equivalent of a pathway that includes the cortical area MT is thought to be important for shape discrimination of MD forms.

Attention↗
PubMed1991

Recognition of motion-defined shapes in patients with multiple sclerosis and optic neuritis.

We have developed a simple procedure for assessing the ability of the visual pathway to extract a two-dimensional shape from motion. The test requires a patient to read motion-defined (MD) letters. These letters differ physically from the familiar contrast-defined (CD) letters that are dimmer or brighter than their surroundings in that the boundaries of MD letters are rendered visible exclusively by a step in velocity while the boundaries of CD letters are rendered visible by a step in luminance. Subjects viewed a random pattern of bright dots containing a perfectly camouflaged letter. Then the letter was revealed by moving dots within and outside the letter at equal speeds in opposite directions. Letter reading scores for 50 eyes of 25 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or optic neuritis were compared with norms based on 50 control subjects. When tested with large (50 arc min, i.e., 6/60) MD letters, 34/50 eyes of patients required abnormally high dot speeds to read letters, visual loss being sufficiently selective in 10 eyes that contrast sensitivity, Snellen acuity, 11%-contrast and 4%-contrast acuity were all spared. Four eyes were effectively motion blind in the sense that they could not read large letters even at our highest relative speed of 0.9 deg/s and the failure could not be attributed to reduced Snellen acuity. Our normal limit was 2.5 SD from the control mean and there were 1/50 false positives. Of the 34/50 eyes with elevated speed thresholds, 23 had normal Snellen acuities. The number of eyes abnormal for intermediate (11%) contrast CD letters, was 19/50 of which 8 had normal Snellen acuity, confirming our previous finding that MS can degrade the ability to see low-contrast objects while sparing Snellen acuity. We conclude that MD test letters can detect lesions that are not picked up by testing with CD test letters of high or low contrast. We suggest that the MD letter test can detect dysfunction in the human equivalent of a pathway in monkey brain that originates in large retinal ganglion cells, passes through the magnocellular layers of the lateral geniculate body, includes cortical area MT, and is involved in processing motion.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The Charles F. Prentice Award Lecture 1990: specific tests and specific blindnesses: keys, locks, and parallel processing.

Classical color vision theory incorporates the concepts of hard-wired parallel independent processing and of hard-wired opponent-processing. These two powerful concepts can be applied more generally in visual psychophysics. The concept of parallel independent processing can help to understand two extremes of visual performance: disordered vision in patients and the extraordinary visual abilities of athletes and aviators. Three illustrations of this thesis are discussed. First, evidence for dissociations of spatial vision for low-contrast and high-contrast objects. Second, evidence that a binocular system for motion in depth runs in parallel with the classical disparity-driven binocular system for relative position in depth. Third, evidence that a visual system for motion-defined form parallels the well known system for contrast-defined form. However, in principle these two concepts have limited value because they do not incorporate the possibility that the functional organization of the visual pathway could be modified by descending task-dependent signals.

Awards and Prizes↗
PubMed1990

Visual acuity for optotypes made visible by relative motion.

There are several visual mechanisms for analyzing spatial information additional to the much researched mechanism sensitive to luminance contrast. We describe a Snellen-type acuity test for motion-defined (MD) letters. Acuity for these MD letters collapsed at dot speeds slower than 0.05 deg/s, but acuity for contrast-defined (CD) letters was unaffected by speed over the entire 0 to 0.3 deg/s range used. Acuity was a power function of presentation duration for both kinds of letter, but the exponent was higher for MD than for CD letters. Acuity for MD letters was comparatively unaffected by dot density from 50 to 0.05%, below which it suddenly collapsed to zero. On the other hand, acuity for CD letters progressively fell as dot density was reduced from 50%, and below about 0.5% approximated acuity for MD letters.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Crowding depends on contrast.

Previous studies of visual "crowding" in children have been restricted to the use of high contrast optotypes. In this study, visual acuity was measured in a group of 30 normally sighted children using high (96%), medium (11%), and low (4%) contrast Snellen charts and isolated letter cards. The crowding effect was found to be less for low contrast letters than for high contrast letters.

Child↗
PubMed1990

The component of gaze selection/control in the development of visual acuity in children.

Visual acuity was tested for 180 eyes of 90 children in four age groups using three types of test charts. Subjects read the same 10 high-contrast letters in Snellen (line) format, as isolated-letter flash cards, and as repeat-letter flash cards. Group mean line and group mean isolated-letter acuity showed similar progressive improvements with age. A subgroup of 24 of 50 eyes of 4- to 5-year-olds (15 of 25 subjects) and 3 of 50 eyes of 6- to 7-year-old (2 of 25 subjects) had low Snellen acuity. Of this low-acuity subgroup of 27 eyes, 10 scored above average for their age group on the repeat-letter chart. We concluded that abnormal lateral interactions were not the explanation for the immaturity of Snellen acuity in these 10 eyes. We suggest that an important factor in the low acuities of these 10 eyes is delayed development of the selection and/or control of gaze direction. Some eyes with excellent Snellen acuity showed high crowding. For example, there were five such eyes in the oldest group. We suggest that the excellent acuities of at least two of these eyes are limited by minor inaccuracies in gaze selection and/or control rather than by lateral interaction.

Aging↗
PubMed1990

The effects of recycling on the tensile bond strength of new and clinically used stainless steel orthodontic brackets: an in vitro study.

The tensile bond strength was evaluated for three different types of stainless steel orthodontic bracket/base combinations (both cast and machined integral bases, and a foil-mesh base). The cast base gave a significantly higher initial bond strength than the other two brackets. Following recycling by either chemical or thermal methods, all the bases demonstrated a significant reduction in bond strength. However, thermal recycling produced an unacceptably large reduction in the bond strength of the cast base and this method of reconditioning should be avoided with these brackets. Recycling the brackets an additional four times was found to result in a further reduction in bond strength, but this was not statistically significant. Clinically used brackets demonstrated a slightly lower, though not statistically significant, bond strength compared to unused brackets following one recycling with either the chemical or thermal method.

Acrylic Resins↗
PubMed1989

Visual field defects for unidirectional and oscillatory motion in depth.

Visual fields for oscillatory motion in depth were recorded for 21 subjects. Near fields were different from far fields in 8 and similar in 11 subjects. Visual fields for unidirectional motion in depth were recorded for 16 subjects for near and far disparities. Some subjects had fields that differed for approaching versus receding motion in depth and/or for near versus far disparities. In particular, for near disparities, approaching versus receding motion gave fields that were different in 5 and similar 7 subjects; for far disparities, approaching versus receding motion gave fields that were different in 1 and similar in 10 subjects. For approaching motion in depth, near fields differed from far fields in 3 and were similar in 8 subjects; for receding motion in depth, near fields were different from far fields in 5 and similar in 8 subjects. Because sensitivity to monocular frontal plane motion showed no irregularities corresponding to the stereomotion field defects, we conclude that (1) stereomotion field defects were chiefly due to defective cortical processing of motion. We also conclude that (2) stereomotion field defects--at least for unidirectional motion--are caused by loss of sensitivity to unidirectional motion in depth rather than to abnormal interactions between mechanisms for approaching and receding motion, and (3) the finding of directional-specific stereomotion blindness is better explained by the two-population than by the one-population hypothesis of stereomotion blindness. We suggest that the substantial incidence of stereomotion field defects in normally-sighted subjects has implications for clinical studies and for visual assessment of pilots.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Orientation discrimination for objects defined by relative motion and objects defined by luminance contrast.

A bar-shaped area within a pattern of random dots was demarcated by moving the dots within the bar at a velocity equal and opposite to the velocity of dots outside the bar. Orientation discrimination for this motion-defined dotted bar was compared with orientation discrimination for a contrast-defined dotted bar that was created by switching off all dots outside the bar. Orientation discrimination was approximately as acute (approx. 0.5 deg) for a motion-defined bar as for a contrast-defined dotted bar, provided that dot contrast and speed were both high. Furthermore, this 0.5 deg discrimination compares with the most acute values reported for sharp-edged lines and sinewave gratings. For the motion-defined bar discrimination fell off rapidly when dot contrast was reduced, but remained acute for the contrast-defined bar for a further reduction of 0.6 log units. Thus, there was a 4:1 range of contrasts over which discrimination had collapsed for the motion-defined bar but remained acute for the contrast-defined bar. For the motion-defined bar discrimination also fell off rapidly at low dot speeds, but was almost unaffected by speed for the contrast-defined bar. These findings bear on the question whether orientation of motion-defined and contrast-defined bars are analyzed by the same or by different neural mechanisms, and pose a challenge for current theories of orientation discrimination.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Objective investigation of visual function using a nondestructive zoom-FFT technique for evoked potential analysis.

We describe an ultra-high resolution technique for recording evoked potentials (EPs) that are thousands of times smaller than the total EEG power. We report that two superimposed visual stimulus patterns, one modulated at F1 Hz and the other at F2 Hz, can generate 20 or more EP frequency components, each of which is contained within a bandwidth of no more than 0.004 Hz. We have developed a theoretical method for calculating the amplitudes and phases of these various cross-modulation components for different arrangements of model neurons. The relative amplitude of the various cross-modulation components seems to be a 'signature' of the particular neural model and this offers a way of testing theoretical neural models against EP data. As an illustration we compare the nonlinear EP components evoked by dichoptic stimulation with unpatterned flickering light against several models of binocular interaction. These nonlinear binocular interaction terms may offer a means of investigating binocularity in amblyopic children or infants who have low acuity in one or both eyes.

Electronic Data Processing↗