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The effects of intermittent vision on prehension under binocular and monocular viewing.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of intermittent binocular and monocular vision on the preparation and execution of the transport and grasp phases of prehension, and hence the temporal limit of binocular and monocular integration. Participants in two groups (speed or accuracy) performed prehensile movements of two amplitudes (20 and 40 cm) to either a large or small object (6 x 6 x 2 and 6 x 4x 2 cm) under conditions of binocular and monocular viewing. The interval between visual samples was manipulated with liquid crystal goggles (continuous vision, 20on/60off, and 20on/120off ms). A kinematic analysis indicated that participants modified variables associated with the preparation and execution of prehension in the intermittent vision conditions when instructed to emphasize accuracy. Participants instructed to emphasize speed, modified variables associated with the preparation phase only. The impact of intermittent vision was similar under binocular and monocular viewing. Thus, for prehension, it appears that consecutive binocular or monocular samples need to occur less than 60 ms apart in order to be fully integrated for limb control.

Adult↗

Interpreting the multifocal visual evoked potential: the effects of refractive errors, cataracts, and fixation errors.

AIM: To understand how refractive errors, cataracts, and fixation errors affect multifocal visual evoked potential (mfVEP) responses. METHODS: Monocular mfVEP responses were obtained using a pattern reversal dartboard display. For the control condition, visual acuity was corrected to > or =20/20 and foveal fixation was maintained. The right eye was tested under the following conditions: simulated refractive error, simulated cataract, steady eccentric fixation, and unsteady fixation. RESULTS: No subject demonstrated significant abnormalities under control conditions. For the simulated refractive error condition, significant centrally located abnormalities were seen for all subjects. For the simulated cataract condition, significant abnormalities were found for three subjects. The steady eccentric fixation condition yielded abnormalities in both eyes for all subjects while the unsteady fixation condition yielded significant central abnormalities in the tested eye. With eccentric and unsteady fixation conditions, all subjects had at least one sector with a waveform polarity reversal. CONCLUSIONS: While the mfVEP is a useful tool for identifying local optic nerve damage or ruling out non-organic aetiology of visual field defects, factors such as uncorrected refractive errors, cataract, eccentric fixation, and unsteady fixation can produce apparent field defects on the mfVEP. With care, these problems can be correctly identified.

Adult↗

Frisby Davis distance stereoacuity values in visually normal children.

AIMS: To establish the range of normal distance stereoacuity in young children using the Frisby Davis distance stereo test (FD2). METHODS: Children passing preschool vision screening assessments underwent measurement of distance stereoacuity with the FD2 using a standard testing protocol. RESULTS: 59 visually normal children aged between 36 months and 68 months were recruited to this study. All 59 were able to understand the test requirements and were examined with the FD2 stereo test. Four (6.8%) had no measurable stereoacuity; 13 (24%) had stereoacuity measurable only at a 3 metre testing distance (mean 92.3 seconds of arc; SD 52.6). These children were significantly younger than the remaining 42 (76%) who demonstrated a stereoacuity response at a 6 metre testing distance (mean 29.6 seconds of arc; SD 13.1, p=0.008). CONCLUSION: The FD2 stereo test enables the measurement of distance stereoacuity in young children. There appears to be a maturational effect with distance stereoacuity improving between 36 months and 68 months. The data on age related normal values will provide a baseline from which to compare outcomes in clinical populations.

Aging↗

Unilateral visual impairment and neurodevelopmental performance in preschool children.

BACKGROUND: Unilateral visual impairment (UVI) as a result of amblyopia or refractive error is common in childhood, but its functional significance remains largely unexplored. AIM: To investigate the influence of visual acuity and stereoacuity on the performance of preschool children on tasks requiring visuomotor skills and visuospatial ability. METHODS: Children with normal (6/6) visual acuity (VA) in both eyes and children with UVI ranging from 6/9 to 6/60, with no strabismus and normal vision in the fellow eye, were assessed on a neurodevelopmental test battery of visually guided tasks. RESULTS: 50 children (mean age (SD): 52.4 (5.7) months; median (range) VA: 6/9 (6/6 to 6/60); median (range) stereoacuity: 70 seconds arc (40-absent)) completed the test battery. UVI and stereoacuity correlated moderately (Pearson's r = 0.537, p < 0.001) but seven of 28 children with impaired VA had normal stereoacuity (< 70 seconds arc) while five of 22 with normal VA had abnormal stereoacuity. Stereoacuity correlated with performance on a task requiring fine hand-eye coordination and a task measuring visuomotor integration. UVI did not correlate with performance on any test battery items. CONCLUSIONS: UVI itself does not appear to relate to visuomotor actions, except when associated with reduced stereoacuity. Stereoacuity appears to have an influential role in fine visuomotor actions and spatial representation in preschool children.

Amblyopia↗

Dyslexia.

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Dyslexia↗

Multistage model for binocular rivalry.

Binocular rivalry is the alternating perception that occurs when incompatible stimuli are presented to the two eyes: one monocular stimulus dominates vision and then the other stimulus dominates, with a perceptual switch occurring every few seconds. There is a need for a binocular rivalry model that accounts for both well-established results on the timing of dominance intervals and for more recent evidence on the distributed neural processing of rivalry. The model for binocular rivalry developed here consists of four parallel visual channels, two driven by the left eye and two by the right. Each channel consists of several consecutive processing stages representing successively higher cortical levels, with mutual inhibition between the channels at each stage. All stages are architecturally identical. With n the number of stages, the model is implemented as 4n nonlinear differential equations using a total of eight parameters. Despite the simplicity of its architecture, the model accounts for a variety of experimental observations: 1) the increasing depth of rivalry at higher cortical areas, as shown in electrophysiological, imaging, and psychophysical experiments; 2) the unimodal probability density of dominance durations, where the mode is less than the mean; 3) the lack of correlation between successive dominance durations; 4) the effect of interocular stimulus differences on dominance duration; and 5) eye suppression, as opposed to feature suppression. The model is potentially applicable to issues of visual processing more general than binocular rivalry.

Animals↗

Effects of stationary textured backgrounds on the initiation of pursuit eye movements in monkeys.

1. The initial ocular pursuit of small target spots (0.25 degrees diam) that suddenly start to move at constant speed (ramps) was recorded in four rhesus monkeys with the electromagnetic search coil technique. All target motions were horizontal, and both eyes were monitored. 2. In agreement with the observations of Keller and Khan, stationary textured backgrounds substantially reduced the initial eye acceleration achieved during pursuit but did not affect its latency. Correlation techniques were used to assess the changes in the eye speed profiles and indicated that the reduction in eye acceleration due to the background was a linear function of the logarithm of target speed over the range investigated (5-40 degrees/s), averaging 60% with the fastest targets. 3. Selectively excluding the background texture from the path of the target with a horizontal strip of card (vertical width, 4 degrees) reduced the impact of the background only slightly, and, even when the vertical width of the card was increased to 60 degrees, the effect of the background was not entirely eliminated. Thus the effect involves regions of the visual field well beyond the target and is not due simply to the reduced physical salience (contrast) of the target spot. Such spatially remote interactions suggest that the neurons decoding the target's motion have very extensive visual receptive fields. 4. Textured backgrounds also caused similar reductions in the eye acceleration during initial pursuit when, before the ramps, the fixated target spots stepped forward, i.e., stepped in the direction of the subsequent ramps (step ramps). In this situation, as with no steps, initial target ramps were foveofugal. When the fixated target spots were stepped back before moving forward so that initial target ramps were foveopetal, textured backgrounds now also delayed the onset of pursuit, and the reductions in eye acceleration were not seen until some time later when tracking resulted from foveofugal target-ramp motion. Selectively excluding the texture from the path of the target with a narrow strip of card eliminated any delays in the onset of pursuit to step ramps, but the later reductions in eye acceleration were still evident. These step-ramp data indicate that the mechanisms decoding foveofugal and foveopetal target ramps differ markedly in their sensitivity to textured backgrounds. That backgrounds can influence the latency and the initial eye acceleration independently is consistent with the idea that there are independent trigger and drive mechanisms for the decoding of target motions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

Long-term dysfunctions of neural stereoscopic mechanisms after unilateral extraocular muscle proprioceptive deafferentation.

1. Neural correlates of the permanent deficits in depth perception that occur when extraocular muscle proprioceptive (EMP) afferents are interrupted unilaterally in kittens were investigated by performing extracellular recordings in the primary visual cortex (area 17) in adulthood. Unilateral section of the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve (V1 nerve) were performed in 11 cats when they were between 5 and 12 weeks of age (uni-V1 group). Electrophysiological results were compared with those obtained in 17 normal adult cats (control group). 2. Binocular interactions were assessed by testing the sensitivity of cortical neurons to dichoptic presentations of moving sine-wave gratings whose interocular positional phase relationship was randomly varied. The amplitude modulation between the minimum and the maximum binocular responses defined the dynamic range. The degree of binocular suppression or facilitation was assessed by comparing these binocular response limits with the optimal monocular responses evoked through either eye at the best spatial frequency. The variability of both monocular and binocular responses was estimated by using the variation coefficient. 3. In uni-V1 cats, both the dynamic range and the degree of binocular suppression were significantly less pronounced than in controls, whereas binocular facilitation was not affected. The variability of the binocular responses was significantly increased, unlike monocular responses, whose variability was similar to control values. 4. From Fourier analysis of the poststimulus time histograms, two clear-cut categories of cells emerged that were differentially affected in the uni-V1 group. The "modulated" cells showed significantly less binocular suppression than in controls, and the "unmodulated" cells had binocular responses that were significantly more variable than in controls. Results from "simple" cells were similar to those of modulated cells, and results from "complex" cells were similar to those of unmodulated cells. However, in the unmodulated population, which was composed of both simple and complex cells, it was shown that the increase of variability was due to that of complex cells. 5. A nonparametric statistical test was applied on the interocular phase shift tuning curves to determine the minimum stimulus change necessary to elicit a significant change in the neural response. Two categories of cells were determined: the "discriminative" cells (80% in controls but 45% in uni-V1 cats) combined pronounced binocular suppression and dynamic range with relatively low variability. The reverse was true in the case of "nondiscriminative" cells (20% in controls and 55% in uni-V1 cats). 6. In uni-V1 cats, about half of the cells were monocularly activated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Afferent Pathways↗

Visual fields in Short-toed Eagles, Circaetus gallicus (Accipitridae), and the function of binocularity in birds.

Visual fields were determined in alert restrained birds using an ophthalmoscopic reflex technique. The region of binocular overlap is relatively small: maximum width of 20 degrees occurs approximately 15 degrees below the horizontal, and the field extends vertically through 80 degrees with the bill tip placed close to the centre. Monocular field width in the horizontal plane is 139 degrees, and the field is asymmetric about the optic axis. The cyclopean field extends through 260 degrees, and the blind area above and behind the head reaches maximum width of 100 degrees close to the horizontal. At the frontal margins of the monocular field the retinal and optical fields do not coincide; the retinal field margin lies approximately 10 degrees inside the optical margin. This gives rise to an apparent binocular field that is twice the width of the functional binocular field. Interspecific comparisons show that the binocular field of Short-toed Eagles is similar in shape and size to those of bird species that differ markedly in phylogeny, ecology, foraging technique, and eye size. This suggests that these relatively narrow binocular fields are a convergent feature of birds whose foraging is guided by visual cues irrespective of whether items are taken directly in the bill or in the feet, as in eagles, and irrespective of the size and shape of the monocular and cyclopean visual fields. It is argued that binocular vision in birds results from the requirement for each monocular field to extend contralaterally to embody a portion of the optical flow field which is radially symmetrical about the direction of travel. This is in contrast to functional explanations of binocularity, such as those concerned with stereopsis, which present it as a means of extracting higher order information through the combination of two monocular images of the same portion of a scene.

Animals↗

Binocularity in the little owl, Athene noctua. I. Anatomical investigation of the thalamo-Wulst pathway.

The efferent projections from the visual thalamus to the Wulst were studied in the little owl, Athene noctua. Cells of origin were identified by retrograde labeling after injections of wheat-germ-agglutinin-conjugated horseradish peroxidase into the Wulst. The labeled-cell distribution was correlated with the distribution of anterogradely labeled retinal terminals as revealed by intraocular injections of horseradish peroxidase. The results demonstrated a bilateral thalamofugal visual pathway ascending from the nucleus dorsolateralis anterior thalami (DLA). Projections from the visual thalamus to the Wulst showed a specific and orderly pattern, and retrogradely labeled cells of DLA were distributed equally, in a complementary fashion, on both sides of the brain, with a small region of overlap. Retinal termination fields in DLA largely overlapped relay neurons projecting to either Wulst, although the overlap was not complete. Despite differences in the organization of avian and mammalian visual pathways, which reflect their separate evolutionary origins, similarities between the DLA in the little owl and the lateral geniculate nucleus in mammals suggest that, during evolution similar selective pressures for binocularity led to a similar morphological organization.

Animals↗

Dichoptic visual masking reveals that early binocular neurons exhibit weak interocular suppression: implications for binocular vision and visual awareness.

Visual masking effects are illusions in which a target is rendered invisible by a mask, which can either overlap or not overlap the target spatially and/or temporally. These illusions provide a powerful tool to study visibility and consciousness, object grouping, brightness perception, and much more. As such, the physiological mechanisms underlying the perception of masking are critically important to our understanding of visibility. Several models that require cortical circuits have been proposed previously to explain the mysterious spatial and timing effects associated with visual masking. Here we describe single-unit physiological experiments from the awake monkey that show that visual masking occurs in at least two separate and independent circuits, one that is binocular and one that is monocular (possibly even subcortical), without feedback from higher-level visual brain areas. These and other results together fail to support models of masking that require circuits found only in the cortex, but support our proposed model that suggests that simple ubiquitous lateral inhibition may itself be the fundamental mechanism that explains visual masking across multiple levels in the brain. We also show that area V1 neurons are dichoptic in terms of excitation, but monoptic in terms of inhibition. That is, responses within area V1 binocular neurons reveal that excitation to monocular targets is inhibited strongly only by masks presented to the same eye, and not by masks presented to the opposite eye. These results lead us to redefine the model for the first stage of binocular processing in the visual system, and may be crucial to interpreting the effects of other similar binocular and dichoptic stimulation paradigms, such as the binocular rivalry family of illusions.

Action Potentials↗

Dichoptic plaids may rival, but their motions can integrate.

When the eyes view incompatible images, binocular rivalry usually results: image constituents in corresponding parts of the monocular visual fields are not perceived simultaneously. We asked naive undergraduates to view dichoptic, dioptic, and monoptic plaids. The dichoptic images evoked strong binocular rivalry when contrast was high, especially if the component gratings were set in motion. Nevertheless, the subjects' visual systems integrated the motion information across the two eyes, producing a unitary motion percept that did not reflect the image in either eye alone. By manipulating the relative spatial scale of the gratings, we affected how well the motion cohered: the results were remarkably similar between dichoptic and traditional dioptic plaids. By manipulating the relative speed of the gratings, we systematically affected the perceived direction of motion of the plaids; these results were also remarkably similar for dichoptic and dioptic plaids. Thus, the motion analysis of dichoptic and dioptic plaids is proceeding according to very similar rules, even though the dichoptic images are incompatible and evoke binocular rivalry.

Adult↗

V1 activity is reduced during binocular rivalry.

During binocular rivalry, one of two incompatible monocular stimuli is erased from perceptual awareness for seconds at a time. To examine whether this "rivalry suppression" occurs in V1, we measured functional magnetic resonance imaging activity during binocular rivalry and compared it with those in the two reference conditions: one representing complete suppression and the other representing no suppression. We found that the amplitude of V1 activity during rivalry fell midway between those in the two reference conditions; the amount of V1 activity associated with the nondominant pattern was reduced by 48% to 77% during rivalry. The same pattern of results was obtained with meaningful rival targets (i.e., a human face and a house). In this work, using a different experimental protocol, we confirmed the findings of earlier imaging studies that neuronal events associated with binocular rivalry occur as early as V1. Furthermore, our findings extend those earlier findings by demonstrating robust neural suppression during binocular rivalry regardless of the stimulus complexity of the rivaling targets.

Awareness↗

Binocular rivalry in split-brain observers.

During binocular rivalry, visual perception switches between a stimulus viewed by one eye and a different stimulus viewed by the other. We studied rivalry in split-brain observers to test two explanations. Rivalry could reflect switching of activity between the cerebral hemispheres, or switching by a structure in the right frontoparietal cortex. From these two theories, we predict no rivalry when stimuli are presented to a split-brain observer's left hemisphere. Yet we found similar rivalry from the left and right hemispheres of the split-brain observers, consistent with switchings being mediated by low-level processes within each hemisphere.

Consciousness↗

Task demands and binocular eye movements.

Humans make rapid movements of their eyes several times a second that enable them to examine objects located at different positions in space with both of their eyes. Much of our understanding of these binocular movements comes from studies using experienced observers performing repetitive, unnatural tasks. But what eye movements are made when naïve observers perform tasks demanding specific binocular visual information? We examined the binocular eye movements produced by observers performing two tasks differing in the visual information needed for their completion. Our motivation for doing this was to examine the role and function of binocular eye movements when making decisions. We considered the fixation strategies adopted by observers, the effects of the task on the dynamics of saccadic eye movements, and the combination of vergence and version in gaze shifts. We report that the task-dependent use of visual information can have a strong influence on the patterns of fixations, whilst not influencing saccade dynamics. Our data provide some support for the notion that observers choose and fixate a notional reference point in the scene when making judgments about depth structure.

Adult↗

Determinants of visual awareness following interruptions during rivalry.

The inability of the human visual system to fuse dissimilar patterns in corresponding regions of the two eyes results in stochastic alternation of perceptual dominance between the two patterns: rivalry. When rivalrous stimuli are presented intermittently their perception is stabilized (Leopold, Wilke, Maier, & Logothetis, 2002). This stability indicates the operation of some kind of perceptual memory across interruptions in stimulation. Here we examined the contents of this perceptual memory to quantify the relative contributions of different sources of information: eye-of-origin, orientation, and color. Stimuli were intermittently presented and, during each blank interruption, we swapped either the color, orientation, or eye of presentation of the gratings. Comparing the percepts reported before and after each interruption allowed us to establish what aspects of perception remained stable. During conventional binocular rivalry, the eye in which the stimulus was presented remained stable across 74% of interruptions. Stimulus color and orientation also had weaker significant effects. When eye-of-origin information was eliminated by alternating the patterns rapidly between the two eyes, stimulus color remained stable across 86% of interruptions. Stimulus orientation again had a weaker but significant effect. These results demonstrate that the mechanisms mediating perceptual stability across interruptions in rivalry can operate at both monocular and binocular levels, much like the mechanisms operating during continuous viewing of rivalrous stimuli. On the basis of this similarity, we speculate that perceptual memory across interruptions in rivalry may involve the same neural representations as visual competition during rivalry. If this is the case, the use of intermittent stimulation in rivalry might permit the investigation of aspects of the mechanisms underlying visual competition that remain hidden during continuous presentation.

Awareness↗

Perceived surface color in binocularly viewed scenes with two light sources differing in chromaticity.

We examined the effect of perceived orientation on the perceived color of matte surfaces in rendered three-dimensional scenes illuminated by a blue diffuse light and a yellow punctate light. On each trial, observers first adjusted the color of a matte test patch, placed near the center of the scene, until it appeared achromatic, and then estimated its orientation by adjusting a monocular gradient probe. The orientation of the test patch was varied from trial to trial by the experimental program, effectively varying the chromaticity of the light mixture from the two light sources that would be absorbed and reemitted by a neutral test patch. We found that observers' achromatic settings varied with perceived orientation but that observers only partially discounted orientation in making achromatic settings. We developed an equivalent illuminant model for our task in which we assumed that observers discount orientation using possibly erroneous estimates of the chromaticities of the light sources and/or their spatial distribution. We found that the observers' failures could be explained by two factors: errors in estimating the direction to the punctate light source and errors in estimating the chromaticities of the two light sources. We discuss the pattern of errors in estimating these factors across observers.

Color Perception↗