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Biomedical subjects

P Wenderoth

Publications and source records attributed to P Wenderoth.

88 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

The angular function of orientation illusions induced by projected images of tilted real object scenes.

Tilt aftereffects induced by line gratings are maximal when the test and inducing stimuli have an angular separation of 10 degrees-15 degrees. Similar effects induced by prismatically tilted real-object scenes have been found to increase monotonically with scene tilt. The difference between these two angular functions of aftereffect (that induced by gratings and that induced by real objects) has been attributed to the 'meaning' inherent in the real-object scenes. The preliminary experiments described here suggest that tilt aftereffects and illusions induced by projected slides of tilted real-object scenes have angular functions similar to that induced by a line grating. Hence, the monotonically increasing angular function obtained in the prism studies is not necessarily determined by the use of real-object scenes.

Female↗
PubMed1977

Component analysis of orientation illusions.

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-side 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 fro 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 it (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 degrees/n.

Female↗
PubMed1976

The contribution of relational factors to line-length matches.

Both Kunnapas and Rock and Ebenholtz investigated the effects of surrounding-frame size upon line-length judgments. Whereas Kunnapas obtained errors of the order of 10-15%, typical of those which occur in other geometrical illusion figures, Rock and Ebenholtz reported errors closer to 100%. Rock and Ebenholtz claimed that perceived size is largely relationally determined and that this fact was obscured in Kubnapas experiment by allowing observers to compare the test lines directly with each other and within a common framework provided by the wall of the room. On the contrary, the experiments reported here suggested that errors in the Rock and Ebenholtz study may have been inflated by their use of nondirective instructions and by the confounded effects of other variables. When the Rock and Ebenholtz experiments were repeated with adequat controls over these variables, the effect of surrounding frames on line-length matches were of the order of 15-19%, similar to those of Kunnapas but much smaller than those reported by Rock and Ebenholtz. The complexity of the stimuli in the Rock and Ebenholtz type of experiment is such, however, that the effects of a number of variables and possible cue conflicts remain to be investigated.

Distance Perception↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Psychophysical evidence for area V2 involvement in the reduction of subjective contour tilt aftereffects by binocular rivalry.

Previous research suggests binocular rivalry disrupts extrastriate, but not striate processes, although the locus along the visual pathway at which such disruption first occurs is uncertain. It has been argued that subjective contours arise via a two-stage process in which end-stopped cells feed into orientation-sensitive neurones in V2, and that orientation aftereffects induced with subjective contours are the product of mechanisms similar to those giving rise to real contour aftereffects. If binocular rivalry disrupts the acquisition of subjective contour aftereffects, then it follows from this model that rivalry disrupts processing in V2. Experiments reported here confirm this and provide evidence which suggests binocular rivalry arises through interactions between binocular neurones, rather than via some type of specialized binocular rivalry mechanism.

Afterimage↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Reduction of a pattern-induced motion aftereffect by binocular rivalry suggests the involvement of extrastriate mechanisms.

Previous research suggests that plaid-induced motion aftereffects (MAEs) involve extrastriate mechanisms (Wenderoth et al., 1988). There is evidence also that binocular rivalry occurs beyond V1 and that it disrupts the processing of MAEs which are believed to be based upon extrastriate mechanisms (e.g. the spiral MAE) but not MAEs, such as linear MAE induced by a drifting grating, which are thought to arise in striate cortex (Wiesenfelder & Blake, 1990). The logical inference is that binocular rivalry during drifting plaid-induced adaptation should reduce the MAEs which result. We report experiments which confirm this prediction.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Does cortical motion adaptation exhibit functional properties analogous to light adaptation in the retina?

PURPOSE: The retina codes variations in luminance by adapting to and hence discounting, the mean luminance. During adaptation to a moving pattern, perceived speed decreases. Thus we know that the adapted visual system does not simply code the absolute speed of a stimulus. We hypothesize that adaptation to a moving stimulus serves to optimize coding of changes in speed at the expense of maintaining an accurate representation of absolute speed. In this case we would expect discrimination of speeds around the adapted level to be preserved or enhanced by motion adaptation. METHODS AND RESULTS: After adaptation to motion in the same direction as a subsequent test stimulus, seven of eight subjects showed a reduction of perceived speed in the adapted region and seven showed enhanced discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that motion adaptation preserves or enhances differential speed sensitivity at the expense of an accurate representation of absolute speed in a manner analogous to retinal light adaptation.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neural substrates of the tilt illusion.

PURPOSE: It has been suggested that direct and indirect tilt illusions and after-effects have different mechanisms, namely that the direct effects arise in VI and are sensitive to differences in spatial and temporal parameters between test and inducing stimuli, whereas indirect effects arise in extrastriate cortex and are insensitive to such parameters. When Wolfe (Vision Research 1984; 24: 1959-64) reported that large direct tilt after-effects occurred with short test flashes, he postulated that either there are distinct mechanisms which process brief and longer duration stimuli or that there are distinct mechanisms that are not primarily concerned with duration but are differentially responsive to temporal parameters amongst several others. RESULTS: In three experiments we demonstrate that large direct tilt illusions can be induced when parameters other than duration are manipulated, including contrast and spatial frequency, and that such large effects can occur when stimulus parameters are chosen to favour preferentially either the transient (magnocellular-like) system or the sustained (parvocellular-like) system. CONCLUSIONS: These results are thus consistent with Wolfe's second hypothesis. None of these stimulus manipulations had any effect on indirect tilt illusions, consistent with previous findings and hypotheses about the different mechanisms of the direct and indirect effects.

Brain↗