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Biomedical subjects

R Blake

Publications and source records attributed to R Blake.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Orientation selectivity in cats and humans assessed by masking.

A two-alternative, spatial forced-choice procedure was used to measure contrast thresholds for detection of sinusoidal gratings that appeared within one-dimensional random noise. The orientation of the noise was symmetrically varied relative to the orientation of the test grating to derive estimates of orientation tuning at two spatial frequencies for both cats and humans. For cats, orientation tuning (half-width at half-strength) averaged 23 deg while for humans tuning averaged 28 deg. Both species displayed narrower tuning at the higher spatial frequency. In addition, evidence is presented that estimates of orientation tuning may be narrower when only one orientation of noise is presented, due to "off-channel" detection strategies. These estimates of orientation tuning are discussed in terms of the orientation selectivity of cortical neurons.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Another visual illusion involving orientation.

The orientation of a grating may be misperceived when that grating appears superimposed within one-dimensional visual noise of a different orientation. An adjustment procedure was employed to measure the size of this tilt illusion and its dependence on noise orientation. The illusion is maximum when the noise and test differ by 20 to 40 deg, depending on the spatial frequency of the test grating. Noise composed of spatial frequencies several octaves removed from the test spatial frequency can still cause illusory tilt, although the degree of tilt under these conditions depends on test spatial frequency. This orientation illusion, like the tilt aftereffect, simultaneous tilt illusion and angle expansion illusion, may reflect inhibitory interactions between orientation selective neurons in human vision.

Female↗
PubMed1984

Stereopsis from disparity of complex grating patterns.

Vertical grating patterns containing more than one spatial frequency component were presented stereoscopically. The depth percepts resulting from differences in relative horizontal position (or phase) in left- and right-eye views were measured using a depth-matching procedure. When the frequency components were similar in contrast, the depth percept was mediated by the overall disparity of the compound. However, a relatively low contrast component could make no contribution to the depth percept while still remaining clearly visible in the grating pattern. When two frequency components were equal in contrast but carried different individual disparities derived from local edge and spatial frequency information, the resulting percept contained multiple depth planes.

Depth Perception↗
PubMed1984

Abnormal spatial frequency channels in esotropic cats.

A noise masking paradigm was used to measure spatial tuning for the deviating and nondeviating eyes of two esotropic cats and for one eye of a control cat. With increasing noise contrast, masking grew more slowly for both the deviating and the nondeviating eyes of the esotropic cats than for the control cat; apparently, contrast coding is impaired for both eyes of the esotropic cats. Masking with band-reject filtered noise indicated that detection channels for either eye of the esotropic cats were twice as broadly tuned as those for the control cat. In a subsequent experiment, the spatial tuning characteristics of two human esotropes were found to be normal, indicating a fundamental difference between human esotropia and esotropia induced in cats by the section of an eye muscle.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Contrast discrimination in the cat.

Cats were trained to discriminate between two sinusoidal grating patterns differing only in contrast. The smallest discriminable contrast difference was determined for a number of different baseline contrast levels, and the resulting contrast increment thresholds plotted in the form of a contrast discrimination function. The resulting function was linear when plotted on log/log coordinates and the slope of this function varied with spatial frequency. These behavioural results are compared to the contrast/response properties of retinal and cortical neurones.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Selective adaptation of monocular and binocular neurons in human vision.

Psychophysical techniques were used to examine how subpopulations of visual neurons varying in their ocular dominance interacted in determining performance on a visual task. Using an asymmetric alternating adaptation of the left and right eyes, we manipulated the sensitivity of monocularly driven neurons while keeping the sensitivity of binocularly driven neurons constant. Relative threshold elevations were measured in the left eye, right eye, and both eyes of five observers following different ratios of alternating adaptation. It was found that whereas monocularly measured aftereffects varied monotonically as a function of the adaptation duration of the measured eye, the magnitude of the binocularly measured aftereffect remained constant regardless of how the adaptation was divided between the two eyes. This suggests that neurons differing in their ocular dominance pool their activity in determining sensitivity to a test target.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1983

Binocular rivalry and semantic processing: out of sight, out of mind.

Previous studies of binocular rivalry have shown that some aspects of a phenomenally suppressed stimulus remain available for visual analysis. The question remains, however, whether this analysis extends to the case of semantic information. This experiment examines that question using a semantic-priming paradigm in which prime words were briefly flashed to an eye during either dominance or suppression phases of binocular rivalry. Reaction times on a lexical-decision task were significantly shortened (the semantic-priming effect) only when prime words were presented to an eye during dominance; suppression acted to impair word recognition and to eliminate semantic priming. These results are inconsistent with certain cognitive models of binocular rivalry.

Cognition↗
PubMed1983

Spatial vision in strabismic cats.

Contrast thresholds for detection of stationary and flickering gratings were measured behaviorally for each eye of cats raised with induced convergent strabismus. The performance of the deviating eye was inferior to that of the nondeviating eye when test patterns were stationary. Flicker served to reduce the performance difference between the eyes in two cats but not in a third. These results suggest that strabismus amblyopia may not result from deficits within a single class of neurons. In all strabismic cats the contrast sensitivity of the nondeviating eye was significantly reduced relative to normal cats. These behavioral findings, including the deficits found bilaterally, correspond very well with results from cortical recordings from these and other strabismic cats presented in the preceding paper (7).

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Role of the divalent metal cation in the pyruvate oxidase reaction.

Purified pyruvate oxidase requires a divalent metal cation for enzymatic activity. The function of the divalent metal cation was studied for unactivated, dodecyl sulfate-activated, and phosphatidylglycerol-activated oxidase. Assays performed in the presence of Mg2+, CA2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Ba2+, Ni2+, Co2+, Cu2+, and Cr3+ in each of four different buffers, phosphate, 1,4-piperazinediethanesulfonic acid, imidazole, and citrate, indicate that any of these metal cations will fulfill the pyruvate oxidase requirement. Extensive steady state kinetics data were obtained with both Mg2+ and Mn2+. All the data are consistent with the proposition that the only role of the metal is to bind to the cofactor thiamin pyrophosphate (TPP) and that it is the Me2+-TPP complex which is the true cofactor. Values of the Mg2+ and Mn2+ dissociation constants with TPP were determined by EPR spectroscopy and these data were used to calculate the Michaelis constant for the Me2+-TPP complexes. The results show that the Michaelis constants for the Me2+-TPP complexes are independent of the metal cation in the complex. Fluorescence quenching experiments show that the Michaelis constant is equal to the dissociation constant of the Mn2+-TPP complex with the enzyme. It was also shown that Mn2+ will only bind to the enzyme in the presence of TPP and that one Mn2+ binds per subunit. Steady state kinetics experiments with Mn2+ were more complicated than those obtained with Mg2+ because of the formation of an abortive Mn2+-pyruvate complex. Both EPR and steady state kinetics data indicated complex formation with a dissociation constant of about 70 mM.

Buffers↗
PubMed1982

The square-wave illusion and phase anisotropy of the human visual system.

A triangular-wave grating is perceived to fluctuate over time: at one moment it may appear veridical (ie triangular), at another it may more closely resemble a square-wave grating with rounded edges. In addition, the square-wave illusion itself is bistable, in that it sometimes appears to shift in phase by 180 deg. Experiments in which the phase and amplitude of the first three frequency components of the triangular-wave grating were independently varied showed that the square-wave illusion results from the relative phase of the frequency components. Adaptation to two frequency components in square-wave (sine) phase was found to reduce the illusion strength, and adaptation to triangular-wave (cosine) phase was found to increase the illusion strength. In addition, the square-wave adaptation effect spreads to nonadapted retinal areas. It is concluded that the square-wave illusion reflects a phase anisotropy in the human visual system that favors square-wave phase over other phase relations.

Eye Movements↗
PubMed1982

Binocular vision in normal and stereoblind subjects.

This article describes several different psychophysical strategies that have been applied to the study of binocular vision in normal persons and people with deficient stereopsis. Results from these three techniques--binocular summation, interocular transfer, and utrocular discrimination--are considered in terms of the properties of neural mechanisms that integrate inputs from the two eyes.

Amblyopia↗
PubMed1982

Role of threshold in afterimage visibility.

The negative afterimage from grating can be considered equivalent to a renal grating, the contrast of which decreases over time. The interval between the onset of the afterimage and the time at which the effective contrast of the afterimage falls below threshold defines afterimage duration. In a series of experiments with several predictions based on this formulation were confirmed. Square-wave gratings yielded longer afterimage durations than sinusoidal gratings, a difference that is attributable to the difference in threshold between these two types of grating. Also, grating adaptation before afterimage induction was found to abbreviate afterimage duration because of threshold elevation. Finally, it was found that, even after fading to invisibility, an afterimage could interact with a real grafting to influence threshold performance on a forced-choice detection task.

Afterimage↗