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PubMed2005

Contextual masking of oriented lines: interactions between surface segmentation cues.

The ability of human observers to detect and discriminate a single feature of a visual image deteriorates markedly when the targeted feature is surrounded by others of a similar kind. This perceptual masking is mirrored by the suppressive effects of surround stimulation on the responses of neurons in primary visual cortex (area V1). Both perceptual and neuronal masking effects are partially relieved, however, if the targeted image feature is distinguished from surrounding features along some dimension, such as contour orientation. Masking relief is likely to play an important role in perceptual segmentation of complex images. Because dissimilar surfaces usually differ along multiple feature dimensions, we tested the possibility that those differences may influence segmentation in an invariant manner. As expected, we found that the presence of surrounding features resulted in perceptual masking and neuronal response suppression in area V1, but that either orientation or contrast polarity differences between the target and surrounding features was sufficient to partially relieve these effects. Simultaneous differences along both dimensions, however, yielded no greater relief from masking than did either difference alone. Although the averaged neuronal effects of orientation polarity cues were thus invariant, the time course over which these effects emerged after each stimulus appearance was different for the two cues. These findings refine our understanding of the functions of nonclassical receptive fields, and they support a key role for V1 neurons in surface segmentation.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed2003

Cortical evidence of the perceptual backward masking effect on /l/ and /r/ sounds from a following vowel in Japanese speakers.

We examined the influence of stimulus duration of foreign consonant vowel stimuli on the MMNm (magnetic counter part of mismatch negativity). In Experiment 1, /ra/ and /la/ stimuli were synthesized and subjects were native Japanese speakers who are known to have difficulty discriminating the stimuli. "Short" duration stimuli were terminated in the middle of the consonant-to-vowel transition (110 ms). They were nevertheless clearly identifiable by English speakers. A clear MMNm was observed only for short-duration stimuli but not for untruncated long-duration (150-ms) stimuli. We suggest that the diminished MMNm for longer duration stimuli result from more effective masking by the longer vowel part. In Experiment 2 we examined this hypothesis by presenting only the third formant (F3) component of the original stimuli, since the acoustic difference between /la/ and /ra/ is most evident in the third formant, whereas F1 and F2 play a major role in vowel perception. If the MMNm effect depends on the acoustic property of F3, a stimulus duration effect comparable to that found with the original /la/ and /ra/ stimuli might be expected. However, if the effect is attributable to the masking effect from the vowel, no influence of stimulus duration would be expected, since neither stimulus contains F1 and F2 components. In fact, the results showed that the "F3 only" stimuli did not show a duration effect; MMNm was always elicited independent of stimulus duration. The MMN stimulus duration effect is thus suggested to come from the backward masking of foreign consonants by subsequent vowels.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2005

Human frequency-following responses to binaural masking level difference stimuli.

Binaural masking level difference is the behavioral threshold difference between a diotic condition (SoNo) and a dichotic condition with a 180 degrees interaural phase delay of either the signal (SpiNo) or the masker (SoNpi). Threshold disparity is partially related to coincidence-detecting units in the medial superior olive that are sensitive to low-frequency binaural stimuli with interaural phase differences. Previous surface evoked potential studies report significant latency and amplitude differences to SpiNo stimuli with respect to SoNo stimuli in the P1-N1 auditory event related potential, but no study has reported physiologic masking level differences in a brain stem evoked potential. The human frequency-following response (FFR) represents activity from low-frequency, phase locking neural units in the upper brainstem. Unmasked FFRs to 500 Hz tone bursts and masked FFRs using a 1.5 kHz low-pass masker were recorded from nine normal-hearing adult subjects. Significant reduction in FFR amplitude occurred in the SoNo condition, re the So condition, with masker intensities near the psychoacoustic SoNo masking level. Significant FFR amplitude recovery was observed for both the SoNpi and SpiNo conditions. These results support the role of phase-locked neural activity in brainstem mechanisms involved in perceptual masking release.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Vibrotactile thresholds of the Non-Pacinian I channel: I. Methodological issues.

Thresholds of the Non-Pacinian I (NP I) channel were measured using a two-interval forced-choice paradigm, a technique independent of the subject's criterion. The studies were performed using the terminal phalanx of the human middle finger with a 40-Hz vibratory stimulus. Unlike most of the previous experiments performed in our laboratory, a contactor surround was not used. This was done to enable comparison with population models of mechanoreceptive fibers in the literature. Since the Pacinian (P) channel and NP I channel have similar vibrotactile thresholds at 40?Hz, a forward-masking procedure was used to elevate the thresholds of the P channel with respect to the NP I channel. While it has been established that the Pacinian fibers are entrained at high stimulus levels, the P channel can be perceptually masked using a 250-Hz stimulus presented prior to the 40-Hz test stimulus. The masking functions were found to be approximately linear on log-log axes and the threshold shifts were found to increase as the masking-stimulus levels increased. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies that were performed at various stimulation sites by using a contactor surround or not. A companion paper presents the variation of NP I-channel thresholds, measured using the methods described herein, and addresses the effects of stimulation along the proximo-distal axis of the phalanx. The companion paper also discusses the predictions of a computational model, recently proposed, in light of the empirical results presented.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2002

Masking by fast gratings.

Perception of an oriented pattern is impaired in the presence of a superimposed orthogonal mask. This masking effect most likely arises in visual cortex, where neuronal responses are suppressed by masks having a broad range of orientations. Response suppression is commonly ascribed to lateral inhibition between cortical neurons. Recent physiological results, however, have cast doubt on this view: powerful suppression has been observed with masks drifting too rapidly to elicit much of a response in cortex. We show here that the same is true for perceptual masking. From contrast discrimination thresholds, we estimated the cortical response to drifting patterns of various frequencies, and found it greatly reduced above 15-20 Hz. In the same subjects, we measured the strength of masking by the same patterns and found it equally strong for masks drifting slowly (2.7 Hz) as for masks drifting rapidly (27-38 Hz). Fast gratings thus cause strong masking while eliciting weak cortical responses. Our results might be explained by inhibition from cortical neurons that respond to unusually high frequencies, and yet do not make their signals fully available for perceptual judgments. A more parsimonious explanation, however, is that masking does not involve lateral inhibition from cortex. Masking might operate in retina or thalamus, which respond to much higher frequencies than cortex. Masking might also be due to thalamic signals to cortex, perhaps through depression at thalamocortical synapses.

Contrast Sensitivity↗
PubMed2003

Coping with phonological assimilation in speech perception: evidence for early compensation.

The pronunciation of the same word may vary considerably as a consequence of its context. The Dutch word tuin (English, garden) may be pronounced tuim if followed by bank (English, bench), but not if followed by stoel (English, chair). In a series of four experiments, we examined how Dutch listeners cope with this context sensitivity in their native language. A first word identification experiment showed that the perception of a word-final nasal depends on the subsequent context. Viable assimilations, but not unviable assimilations, were often confused perceptually with canonical word forms in a word identification task. Two control experiments ruled out the possibility that this effect was caused by perceptual masking or was influenced by lexical top-down effects. A passive-listening study in which electrophysiological measurements were used showed that only unviable, but not viable, phonological changes elicited a significant mismatch negativity. The results indicate that phonological assimilations are dealt with by an early prelexical mechanism.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

How visual imagery interferes with vision.

Mental visual imagery interferes with vision: the Perky (1910) effect. Is the effect optical, sensory, perceptual, attentional, or just a response bias? Acuity was measured (in undergraduates and graduates) using target lines, with and without images (of lines). Optics (fixation, pupil size, accommodation), response bias, global attention (effort; diversion of attention to imagery), perceptual assimilation (target incorporation by imagery) and perceptual masking (of target by imagery) all fail to explain the effect. Foveally, local attention plays a limited role, as the Perky effect in divided attention is half that in focused attention, but this interaction vanishes with extrafoveal targets. Images produce primarily sensory interference, mimicking a reduction in target energy.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Visual search among items of different salience: removal of visual attention mimics a lesion in extrastriate area V4.

In more than one respect, visual search for the most salient or the least salient item in a display are different kinds of visual tasks. The present work investigated whether this difference is primarily one of perceptual difficulty, or whether it is more fundamental and relates to visual attention. Display items of different salience were produced by varying either size, contrast, color saturation, or pattern. Perceptual masking was employed and, on average, mask onset was delayed longer in search for the least salient item than in search for the most salient item. As a result, the two types of visual search presented comparable perceptual difficulty, as judged by psychophysical measures of performance, effective stimulus contrast, and stability of decision criterion. To investigate the role of attention in the two types of search, observers attempted to carry out a letter discrimination and a search task concurrently. To discriminate the letters, observers had to direct visual attention at the center of the display and, thus, leave unattended the periphery, which contained target and distractors of the search task. In this situation, visual search for the least salient item was severely impaired while visual search for the most salient item was only moderately affected, demonstrating a fundamental difference with respect to visual attention. A qualitatively identical pattern of results was encountered by Schiller and Lee (1991), who used similar visual search tasks to assess the effect of a lesion in extrastriate area V4 of the macaque.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Limiting lexical activation limits perceptual priming in masked word identification.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that perceptual priming of a word depends on the prior lexical processing of the word (Rajaram & Roediger, 1993; Weldon, 1991). Experiment 1 showed that first-letter naming reduced priming relative to reading a whole word on two tests: word fragment completion and masked word identification. In Experiment 2, naming the first letter of a word took longer than naming the letter presented alone, and led to better masked word identification. Experiment 3 showed that masked word identification was enhanced by prior word processing more for low frequency words than for high frequency words, but only when words had been read aloud. Experiment 4 tested whether the auditory input accruing from reading a word aloud was the source of facilitation and frequency effects. Participants judged either the frequency of the whole display or the positional frequency of the first letter in the display, and indicated their decisions manually. The major findings from Experiment 3 were replicated, ruling out the cross-modal source of those effects. It was concluded that activation of a lexical unit, one component of word processing (Vriezen, Moscovitch, & Bellos, 1995), is a critical determinant of the perceptual priming of that word.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Comparison of nosespace, headspace, and sensory intensity ratings for the evaluation of flavor absorption by fat.

The goal of this study was to better understand the correspondence between sensory perception and in-nose compound concentration. Five aroma compounds at three different concentrations increasing by factors of 4 were added to four matrixes (water, skim milk, 2.7% fat milk, and 3.8% fat milk). These were evaluated by nosespace analysis with detection by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), using five panelists. These same panelists evaluated the perceived intensity of each compound in the matrixes at the three concentrations. PTR-MS quantification found that the percent released from an aqueous solution swallowed immediately was between 0.1 and 0.6%, depending on the compound. The nosespace and sensory results showed the expected effect of fat on release, where lipophilic compounds showed reductions in release as fat content increases. The effect is less than that observed in headspace studies. A general correlation between nosespace concentration and sensory intensity ratings was found. However, examples of perceptual masking were found where higher fat milks showed reductions in aroma compound intensity ratings, even if the nosespace concentrations were the same.

Absorption↗
PubMed2004

Modulation of the discriminative stimulus effects of mu opioid agonists in rats: II. Effects of dopamine D2/3 agonists.

Dopamine (DA) D2/3 receptor agonists have been shown to attenuate the behavioral effects of mu opioid agonists. This study was designed to examine the modulatory actions of the D2/3 agonists quinelorane, quinpirole and (+/-)-2-dipropylamino-7-hydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene hydrobromide (7-OH-DPAT) on the discriminative stimulus effects of the higher-efficacy mu agonists heroin, methadone and morphine, as well as the lower-efficacy agonist nalbuphine, in rats trained to discriminate heroin from water. All three D2/3 agonists attenuated the heroin-like discriminative stimulus effects of morphine, methadone and nalbuphine, whereas quinpirole and 7-OH-DPAT, but not quinelorane, effectively attenuated the discriminative stimulus effects of heroin. Each D2/3 agonist administered alone occasioned water-appropriate responding and decreased rates of responding. These results extend previous findings, which demonstrated that activation of D2/3 receptors attenuates the antinociceptive effects of mu agonists, to now include their discriminative stimulus effects as well. The exact nature of this modulation of opioid effects by dopamine agonists is unclear, and may include neurochemical interactions as well as psychological mechanisms such as perceptual masking.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

A novel high-capacity data-embedding system.

In this paper, we present a novel data-embedding system with high embedding capacity. The embedding algorithm is based on the quantized projection embedding method with some enhancement to achieve high embedding rates. In particular, our system uses a random permutation of the columns of a Hadamard matrix as projection vectors and a fixed perceptual mask based on the JPEG default quantization table for the quantization step design. As a result, the data-embedding system achieves 1/167 (1 bit out of 167 raw image bits) to 1/84 hiding ratios with a BER of around 0.1% in the presence of JPEG compression attacks, while maintaining visual distortion at a minimum.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1998

Auditory and linguistic factors in the perception of voice offset time as a cue for preaspiration.

Previous research [J. Pind, Acta Psychol. 89, 53-81 (1995)] has shown that preaspiration in Icelandic, an [h]-like sound inserted between a vowel and the following closure, can be cued by Voice Offset Time (VOffT), a speech cue which is the mirror image of Voice Onset Time (VOT). Research has also revealed that VOffT is much more sensitive to the duration of the neighboring vowel than is VOT [J. Pind, Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 49A, 745-764 (1996)]. This paper explores the hypothesis that it is primarily the perceived quantity of the vowel that is responsible for the effect of the vowel on the perception of preaspiration. This hypothesis is based on the linguistic fact that preaspiration can only follow a phonemically short vowel. This linguistic hypothesis is contrasted with an auditory hypothesis in terms of forward masking. Perceptual experiments show that the perceptual boundaries for preaspiration can be affected either by changing the preceding vowel's duration or its spectrum. If the spectrum of the vowel changes towards that of a long vowel, longer VOffT's are needed for listeners to perceive preaspiration, thus lending support to the linguistic hypothesis.

Cues↗
PubMed1984

Perceptual and conceptual masking of pictures.

We report an experiment in which target pictures, presented for 50 ms, were followed by masks. Two mask variables were implemented: mask luminance and amount of attention demanded by the mask. Luminance but not attention demand affected subsequent picture-memory performance when the mask followed the picture immediately; however, attention demand but not luminance affected performance when the mask was delayed by 300 ms following the offset of the picture. We conclude that qualitatively different processes are being carried out at 0 versus 300 ms following the offset of a 50-ms picture. We argue that these processes can profitably be viewed as perceptual processes, which operate on raw stimulus input, and conceptual processes, which operate on the output of perceptual processes.

Attention↗
PubMed2003

Perceptual latency priming by masked and unmasked stimuli: evidence for an attentional interpretation.

Four experiments investigated the influence of a metacontrast-masked prime on temporal order judgments. The main results were (1) that a masked prime reduced the latency of the mask's conscious perception (perceptual latency priming), (2) that this effect was independent of whether the prime suffered strong or weak masking, (3) that it was unaffected by the degree of visual similarity between the prime and the mask, and that (4) there was no difference between congruent and incongruent primes. Finding (1) suggests that location cueing affects not only response times but also the latency of conscious perception. (2) The finding that priming was unaffected by the prime's detectability argues against a response bias interpretation of this effect. (3) Since visual similarity had no effect on the prime's efficiency, it is unlikely that sensory priming was involved. (4) The lack of a divergence between the effects of congruent and incongruent primes implies a functional difference between the judgments in the temporal order judgment task and speeded responses that have demonstrated differential effects of congruent and incongruent primes (e.g., Klotz & Neumann, 1999). These results can best be interpreted by assuming that the prime affects perceptual latency by initiating a shift of attention, as suggested by the Asynchronous Updating Model (AUM; Neumann 1978, 1982).

Adult↗
PubMed2006

No difference between conscious and nonconscious visuomotor control: evidence from perceptual learning in the masked prime task.

Negative compatibility effects (NCEs) in the masked-prime paradigm are usually obtained when primes are masked effectively. With ineffective masks-and primes above the perceptual threshold-positive compatibility effects (PCEs) occur. We investigated whether this pattern reflects a causal relationship between conscious awareness and low-level motor control, or whether it reflects the fact that both are affected in the same way by changes in physical stimulus attributes. In a 5-session perceptual learning task, participants learned to consciously identify masked primes. However, they showed unaltered NCEs that were not different from those produced by participants in a control group without equivalent perceptual learning. A control experiment demonstrated that no NCEs occur when prime identification is made possible by ineffective masking. The results suggest that perceptual awareness and low-level motor control are affected by the same factors, but are fundamentally independent of each other.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Two-tone unmasking in the forward-masking procedure: suppression or perceptual cueing?

Unmasking in the forward-masking procedure was investigated in two experiments. In the first, signal frequency (fs) was held equal to the frequency of the primary masker component (f1) while the frequency of a secondary masker component f2 (where f2 > f1) was varied. In the second experiment, f1 and f2 were held constant while signal frequency varied. The results are discussed in terms of the effects potential perceptual cues may have on unmasking in the forward-masking procedure.

Cues↗
PubMed2002

Leading, but not trailing, primes influence temporal order perception: further evidence for an attentional account of perceptual latency priming.

Presenting a masked prime leading a target influences the perceived onset of the masking target (perceptual latency priming; Scharlau & Neumann, in press). This priming effect is explained by the asynchronous updating model (Neumann, 1982; Scharlau & Neumann, in press): The prime initiates attentional allocation toward its location, which renders a trailing target at the same place consciously available earlier. In three experiments, this perceptual latency priming by leading primes was examined jointly with the effects of trailing primes in order to compare the explanation of the asynchronous updating model with the onset-averaging and the P-center hypotheses. Experiment 1 showed that an attended, as well as an unattended, prime leads to perceptual latency priming. In addition, a large effect of trailing primes on the onset of a target was found. As Experiment 2 demonstrated, this effect is quite robust, although smaller than that of a leading prime. In Experiment 3, masked primes were used. Under these conditions, no influence of trailing primes could be found, whereas perceptual latency priming persisted. Thus, a nonattentional explanation for the effect of trailing primes seems likely.

Adult↗