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Human brain responses to different image contrasts.

Human brain activity was evoked by a dynamic random-dot display in which a square-wave grating appeared and disappeared at regular intervals. Grating visibility was determined by one of four different contrasts: texture, stereo disparity, luminance, or color. Scalp fields measured with 31 electrodes were used to estimate epicortical potential fields. The estimation procedure required detailed anatomical data for each subject. These were obtained from magnetic resonance images. A three-dimensional digitizer and a stereotactic headgear were used to accurately merge the frame of reference of the magnetic resonance image with that of the evoked potential. Epicortical potential fields provided a better indicator of where brain activity is evoked than did scalp fields. These procedures also corrected for anatomical variations between scalp and brain from subject to subject. In two right-handed female subjects, evoked activity was observed in the left posterior parietal and the right occipital, parieto-occipital and posterior temporal cortices. Evoked activity was observed in the left parietal cortex for luminance processing, in the right parietal cortex for texture processing and in the right temporal cortex for color processing, which was selective for the particular contrast.

Brain↗

The integration of multiple stimulus features by V1 neurons.

We investigated how V1 neurons integrate two stimulus features by presenting stimuli from a stimulus set made up of all combinations of eight different directions of motion and nine binocular disparities. We investigated the occurrence and shape of the resulting joint tuning function. Among V1 neurons, approximately 80% were jointly tuned for disparity with orientation or direction. The joint tuning function of all jointly tuned neurons was separable into distinct tuning for disparity on the one hand, and orientation or direction tuning on the other. The degree of separability and the mutual information between the stimulus and the firing rates were strongly correlated. The mutual information of jointly tuned neurons when both features were decoded together was highly correlated with the mutual information when the two features were decoded separately, and the information was then summed. Jointly tuned neurons were just as good at representing information about single features as neurons tuned for only a single feature. The tuning properties of most jointly tuned neurons did not dynamically evolve over time, nor did jointly tuned neurons respond earlier than neurons tuned for only a single feature. The response selectivity of V1 neurons is low and decreases the information that a neuron represents about a stimulus. Together these results suggest that distinct stimulus features are integrated very early in visual processing. Furthermore, V1 generates a distributed representation through low response selectivity that avoids the curse of dimensionality by using separable joint tuning functions.

Animals↗

Prior depth information can bias motion perception.

Previous studies of the motion aperture problem have shown that the direction of grating motion can be biased by using binocular disparity to designate borders of the aperture as intrinsic (belonging to the grating) or extrinsic (resulting from occlusion of the grating). Observers report motion in the direction of the extrinsic border, as if the grating was extended and moving underneath an occluding surface. Here we investigate whether prior information about depth ordering, given by structure-from-motion, can bias the perceived motion direction of a subsequent moving grating in a similar manner. We presented an aperture stimulus that rotated about its vertical and horizontal axes, revealing the depth relationships (intrinsic and extrinsic) of the aperture borders. The grating then translated within the aperture and observers reported the direction of perceived motion. The test stimulus contained no information about the depth ordering of the scene. We found that observers' reported motion shifted toward the direction of the occluding edges, consistent with the intrinsic-extrinsic border predictions. These results indicate that prior scene information, not just depth information explicitly defined in the test stimulus, is used to help solve the motion aperture problem.

Bias↗

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↗

Adaptive changes in dynamic properties of human disparity-induced vergence.

PURPOSE: Vergence eye movements undergo adaptive recalibration in response to a training stimulus in which the initial disparity is changed just after vergence begins (the double-step paradigm). In the present study the changes in the dynamic properties of convergence, speed and acceleration, were examined by using this double-step paradigm, before and after adaptation. METHODS: Four normal subjects participated. Three-dimensional visual stimuli were provided by a head-mounted display with two liquid crystal diode (LCD) panels. To induce adaptation, a double step of disparity was used: an initial step from distances of 2 to 1 m was followed by a second step to distances of 0.7 m ("increasing paradigm") or 1.4 m ("decreasing paradigm") after a constant period of 0.2 seconds. The dynamic properties of vergence were compared before and after 30 minutes of training with these paradigms. RESULTS: Peak velocity of convergence became significantly greater (increasing paradigm) or smaller (decreasing paradigm) after 30 minutes' training. Changes in the dynamic properties of convergence were also obvious in phase-plane (velocity versus position) and main sequence (peak velocity versus amplitude) plots. Further analysis revealed that adaptive increases in vergence velocity were accomplished by an increase in the duration of the acceleration period, whereas adaptive decreases were induced by a decrease in the maximum value of acceleration. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of change in the dynamic characteristics of vergence after adaptation was similar to that of saccades and the initiation of pursuit eye movements, suggesting common neural mechanisms for adaptive changes in the open-loop control of eye movements.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Components of disparity vergence eye movements: application of independent component analysis.

The "dual mode" theory for the control of disparity vergence eye movements states that two control components, a preprogrammed "transient" component and a feedback-controlled "sustained" component, mediate the motor response. Although prior experimental work has isolated and studied the transient component, little is known of the sustained component's contribution to the dynamic vergence response. The timing between the two components and their relative magnitudes are of interest as they relate to the strategies used by the brain to coordinate and control the two components. Modeling studies provide an estimate of component magnitudes, but cannot uniquely identify component timing nor can the provide detailed information on component dynamics. Here, an eigenvector analysis is applied to a multivariate data set consisting of multiple responses to a step stimulus to confirm the presence of two major components in the vergence response. Next, a new application of independent component analysis is used to estimate the activation patterns of the two components. Results from five subjects show that the sustained component is activated concurrently with the transient component, dominates the later portion of the response, and maintains final position.

Algorithms↗

Coding of disparity information in extrastriate cortex of the cat.

We have used information theory to analyse the responses of neurons in area 21a of the cat to disparity stimuli. Visual stimuli consisted of drifting sinusoidal gratings presented simultaneously to each eye. The relative spatial phase of the gratings varied between stimulus periods in a pseudo-random sequence of 45 degrees increments that covered the full 360 degrees. The mean information content of the responses of all neurons across all phases was 0.72 bits (+/-0.10, SE, n=29). The information conveyed by each neuron was well correlated with the extent to which the interocular phase difference modulated the response of the cell. However, information content was not simply related to firing rate, as there was usually significant information content in the neuronal responses to phase differences that elicited the minimum firing rate. In general, burst responses (impulse intervals <4 ms) did not convey more information than that conveyed by the total response. The contribution to the cumulative information of the response in successive 100-ms segments decreased over the course of the 1-s stimulus. The ratio of information transmitted at 200 ms to that transmitted over the full second had a median of 0.30 while the ratio of 500 ms to 1 s was 0.68.

Action Potentials↗

Spatial interactions modulate stereoscopic processing of horizontal and vertical disparities.

Stereoscopic processing of horizontal and vertical disparities was assessed by measuring how the stereoscopic appearance of test dots near the fixation point was influenced by inducing stimuli in the near periphery. The inducing stimuli were differentially magnified in the two eyes and varied in horizontal eccentricity. As expected, when the inducers were horizontally magnified, the test dots exhibited depth contrast, slanting in depth in a direction opposite the slant of the inducing dots. When the inducers were vertically magnified, the test dots slanted in depth around a vertical axis toward the eye with the larger vertical image (the induced-size effect). However, two lines of evidence suggested that an eccentricity-dependent weighted average of horizontal and vertical components of inducer-dot magnification determined the slant of the test dots. First, as the horizontal eccentricity of the inducing dots was varied, the trend of test-dot slants measured with vertical inducer magnifications was predicted by the trend of test-dot slants measured with horizontal inducer magnifications. Second, test-dot slants measured with a combination of both horizontal and vertical inducer magnification could be predicted by simply adding test-dot slants measured with either horizontal or vertical inducer magnification alone.

Computer Graphics↗

The swinging doors of perception: stereomotion without binocular matching.

Until recently, it was considered necessary for features in the two eyes to be matched before the evaluation of differences in their locations (binocular disparities) could reveal depth information. Motion in depth can also be perceived binocularly from related changes in the locations of matched binocular features. However, unmatched features can arise when a binocular object occludes more distant features in one eye but not the other. The presence and extent of such features can provide quantitative depth information, although perceived depth relative to geometrical predictions may vary from one such arrangement to another. The ability of humans to perceive motion in depth from unmatched stimuli has not previously been explored. Here, we use B. Gillam, S. Blackburn, and K. Nakayama's (1999) "monocular gap" stimuli to investigate perception of motion in depth simulated by a change in the extent of a monocularly occluded feature in a binocular display. Settings of a motion in depth probe revealed that the magnitude of perceived motion in depth is generally as large as that for a stimulus containing matchable binocular features. We show that our stimuli provide disambiguating information not present in similar static stimuli. We conclude that in the computation of motion in depth, a binocular match is not required. A new cue-dynamic half-occlusion-can be used to reach an accurate percept.

Depth Perception↗

Characteristics and variability of vertical phoria adaptation in normal adults.

We evaluated the characteristics of phoria adaptation for vertically induced retinal disparity. An adaptive change in the fusion-free ocular alignment, phoria adaptation, was measured with a computer-aided mirror haploscope at 10, 30, and 60 minutes after the start of wearing of a 3-prism-diopter base up prism by 35 normal subjects ranging in age from 21 to 67 years (mean: 37 years). The relationships between phoria adaptation and the subjects' age, the vertical fusional amplitude, the amount of heterophoria, and the starting time of the examination were evaluated. All subjects showed phoria adaptation, with the mean (+/- SD) degree of 0.78 +/- 0.28 degree, 0.96 +/- 0.26 degree and 1.02 +/- 0.30 degrees at 10, 30, and 60 minutes, respectively, after wearing the prism. The repeatability (95% confidence interval) for the measurements was less than +/- 0.24 degree. There was a significant correlation between the vertical fusional amplitude and the gain of phoria adaptation (at 10 and 60 minutes, P < 0.05). The gain of phoria adaptation measured at 60 minutes showed a significant decrease with age (P < 0.01). The results indicate that the time course of phoria adaptation in the vertical direction is similar to that in the horizontal direction and its gain differs considerably among subjects.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Direction-selective adaptation and simultaneous contrast induced by stereoscopic (cyclopean) motion.

Across four experiments, this study investigated direction-specific adaptation and simultaneous contrast induced by moving binocular disparity information (stereoscopic motion). The stimuli were moving arrays of stereoscopic dots created from dynamic random-element stereograms. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of adaptation to motion in a given direction on the apparent direction of test motion. Results showed that the direction of test motion appeared repulsed away from the direction of adapting motion (repulsion aftereffect) by as much as 20 deg or more when directions of adapt and test were similar. Experiment 3 investigated transfer of the repulsion aftereffect across the stereoscopic and luminance domains by employing stereoscopic adapting motion and luminance test motion or vice versa. Results showed that the repulsion aftereffect transferred across the two stimulus domains. Experiment 4 investigated direction-specific contrast by measuring the perceived direction of two stereoscopic arrays presented simultaneously and moving in different directions. Results showed that the directions of the arrays appeared repulsed away from one another when their directions were similar. Taken together, these results suggest that the direction of stereoscopic motion is coded in the activity of directionally selective mechanisms, as is the case for luminance-domain motion. Transfer of the repulsion aftereffect between stereoscopic and luminance domains indicates the two kinds of motion perception are mediated by a common substrate.

Adaptation, Ocular↗

Stereopsis and disparity vergence in monkeys with subnormal binocular vision.

The surgical treatment for strabismus in infants generally results in microtropia or subnormal binocular vision. Although the clinical characteristics of these conditions are well established, there are important questions about the mechanisms of binocular vision in these patients that can best be investigated in an appropriate animal model. In the present psychophysical investigations, spatial frequency response functions for disparity-induced fusional vergence and for local stereopsis were studied in macaque monkeys, who demonstrated many of the major visual characteristics of patients whose eyes were surgically aligned during infancy. In six rhesus monkeys, unilateral esotropia was surgically induced at various ages (30-184 days of age). However, over the next 12 months, all of the monkeys recovered normal eye alignment. Behavioral measurements at 4-6 years of age showed that the monkeys' prism-induced fusional vergence responses were indistinguishable from those of control monkeys or humans with normal binocular vision. Investigations of stereo-depth discrimination demonstrated that each of the experimental monkeys also had stereoscopic vision, but their stereoacuities varied from being essentially normal to severely stereo-deficient. The degree of stereo-deficiency was not related to the age at which surgical esotropia was induced, or to the presence or absence of amblyopia, and was not dependent on the spatial frequency of the test stimulus. Altogether, these experiments demonstrate that a temporary, early esotropia can affect the binocular disparity responses of motor and sensory components of binocular vision differently, probably because of different sensitive periods of development for the two components.

Amblyopia↗

Reduced binocular depth inversion in schizophrenic patients.

Binocular depth inversion represents an illusion of visual perception, serving to invert the perception of implausible hollow objects, e.g. a hollow face into a normal face. Such inversion occurs frequently, especially when objects with a high degree of familiarity (e.g. photographs of faces) are displayed. Under normal conditions, cognitive factors apparently override the binocular disparity cues of stereopsis. This internal mechanism--a kind of "censorship" of perception balancing "top-down" and "bottom-up" processes of perception--appears to be disturbed in psychotic states. The clinical and neuropsychological performance of schizophrenic patients was assessed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Positive And Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI), the Mehrfach-Wahlwortschatz Intelligence Test (MWT-B) and the binocular depth inversion test (BDIT) using pictures with a high degree of familiarity. In schizophrenic patients, the performance in the BDIT differed significantly from healthy controls and from patients with major depression. The schizophrenic patients were more veridical in their judgements in the BDIT. During antipsychotic treatment, BPRS and PANSS scores improved and the inversed faces were seen as more illusionary, driven by an increase in top-down processing. At the end of treatment, there was no significant difference between the patient group and the healthy controls in the score of binocular depth inversion. These findings suggest that testing of binocular depth inversion can detect specific dysfunctions in visual perception and might be useful as a state-marker for psychotic states.

Adult↗

Contribution of middle temporal area to coarse depth discrimination: comparison of neuronal and psychophysical sensitivity.

Recent work suggests that the middle temporal (MT) area contributes to depth perception in addition to its well established roles in motion perception. To determine whether single MT neurons carry disparity signals with sufficient fidelity to account for depth perception, we have compared neuronal and psychophysical sensitivity to disparity while monkeys discriminated between two coarse disparities (near vs far) in the presence of noise. The strength of the visual stimulus was titrated around psychophysical threshold by varying the percentage of binocularly correlated dots in a random dot stereogram. We find that the average MT neuron has sensitivity equal to that of the monkey, as was reported previously for direction discrimination in MT. We further address some important factors that could bias the neuronal/psychophysical sensitivity comparison, including the possibility that monkeys reach a decision before the end of the stimulus presentation. Unlike the predictions of a simple model that uses Poisson spiking statistics, the sensitivity of many MT neurons has little dependence on the time interval over which spikes are counted to compute a neuronal threshold. Thus the response properties of many MT neurons appear to be adapted for rapid discrimination of depth, and we describe how temporal variations in both signal and noise contribute to this effect. We therefore predicted that psychophysical thresholds should exhibit little dependence on viewing duration in our task, and this was confirmed by additional behavioral experiments. Overall, our findings show that MT is well suited to provide sensory signals that form the basis for perceptual judgments of depth.

Action Potentials↗

Effect of the background on the disparity-induced ramp vergence response in humans.

PURPOSE: Our purpose was to investigate the changes in the dynamic property of vergence eye movements caused by changes in the co-existing stationary background in the central visual field. METHODS: Disparity-driven target movement was presented virtually by a head-mounted liquid-crystal display. Two targets were used: a bar-shaped target that moved between 2 and 0.5 m along the mid-sagittal line at a speed of 50 cm/s (vergence target) and a background image of a cross-shaped target that stayed at a distance of 2 m (background target). Eight normal subjects participated in the experiments. The subject was asked to follow the vergence target while the configuration of the background target was randomly changed among four conditions in each experiment: the length (experiment 1) or the width (experiment 2) of the horizontal and vertical lines composing the cross of the background target was each randomly changed among four conditions. A limbus tracker was used to measure eye movements. RESULTS: In experiment 1, there was a negative correlation between the amplitude of the vergence eye movements and the lengths of the lines of the cross in each of five subjects (mean r = 0.018, n = 48 in each subject). Similarly, in experiment 2, there was a negative correlation between the amplitude of the vergence eye movements and the width of the lines of the cross in each of 8 subjects (mean r = -0.12, n = 48 in each subject). CONCLUSION: The vergence response to a target object significantly differs depending on the texture of background objects on the visual axis.

Adult↗

Orientation tuning of the transient-stereopsis system.

Stereo-perception appears to be mediated by at least two systems: a transient system that processes stimuli presented briefly and a sustained one that processes stimuli presented for longer durations. In this paper we investigated the tuning of the transient-stereopsis system to stimulus orientation. Narrowband-gabor targets with a constant envelope size (Gaussian standard deviation of 1 degree) were presented for brief (140 ms) durations at large (from 4 to 8 degrees) disparities. The results were as follows: (1) while observers could extract depth from orthogonally-oriented gabors at above chance levels, their performance was worse than that with gabors of matched orientation; (2) varying the relative contrasts of the two orthogonally oriented gabors of the same spatial frequency resulted in a reduction in performance; (3) varying the relative spatial frequencies of the orthogonally-oriented gabors impaired performance, relative to that for matched frequencies; and (4) varying the relative contrasts of orthogonal gabors that were at different spatial frequencies could improve performance. These results indicate that transient stereo-performance in the orthogonal condition was not mediated by the channels that extracted depth in either the horizontal- or vertically-matched gabor conditions. This apparent lack of orientation tuning is indicative of a second-order pathway. That this performance was mediated by a binocular, as opposed to a monocular channel, is supported by the finding that performance decreased as the contrast of one of the gabors was reduced. The finding that performance with orthogonal gabors of unmatched spatial frequency (0.5 and 4 cpd) could be improved by varying their relative contrasts suggests that the binocular spatial-frequency tuning exhibited by this channel is broadband in nature. Finally, the observation that lowering the contrast of either the high or low spatial-frequency gabor improved performance suggests the presence of at least two broadband channels: one with its peak sensitivity at a low and the other at a high spatial-frequency.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

Closely spaced, fast dynamic movements in disparity vergence.

Conflicting theories exist describing how symmetrical vergence responses, the inward or outward turning of the eyes, are mediated. Classical theories describe vergence control as mediated by visual feedback. Extensive experimental evidence indicates that two distinct control components comprise the vergence response, and a recent theory supports the concept that one of these components is not visually guided. Occasionally, saccadic eye movements will respond to a single step stimulus with two closely spaced saccades, a behavior that is indicative of its switching control structure. If a portion of the vergence response is controlled in a manner analogous to saccades, then occasional double fast dynamic components might be expected. During this study, eye movements were recorded in response to symmetrical vergence stimuli of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 degrees steps. The left and right eye movements were subtracted to yield a net vergence response, and only convergent responses were investigated. Double fast dynamic components associated with high-velocity movements were observed in all four subjects studied. In double high-velocity component responses, the average peak velocity of both fast dynamic movements was always considerably less than the average peak velocity found when the response to the same stimulus was made with only a single component. Response amplitudes of single and double movements showed that if the primary component of a double response did not reach >/=80% of the stimulus amplitude, a secondary component would be generated to aid the movement. Plots of peak velocity as a function of response amplitude for both double and single movements followed the main sequence for vergence eye movements demonstrating that the first-order dynamic characteristics of all high-velocity components were the same. The time at which maximum velocity occurred (relative to stimulus onset) was also the same for both single component responses and the first component of double responses. The similarity in dynamics and timing implies that the high-velocity components were processed by the same controller mechanism. The existence of double high-velocity movements is indicative of an internal, switching mechanism similar to that found in saccades and is difficult to explain with theories that rely on visual feedback control alone.

Calibration↗

[Fixation disparity in peripheral and central binocular vision under conditions of prismatic heterophoria (author's transl)].

A critical review of the literature shows that there are controversal interpretations of thephenomenon fixation disparity. The former findings of Ogle and coworkers are ascertained byinvertigator to close the central gap in the fusional patter. Formerly the gap was essentialdue to polarisation techiques. 1. Without central gap fixation disparity decreases, but remainssignificantly different from zero. 2. Diminution or closing of the gap leads to more preciseresults, since the position of the eyes is better controlled. 3. Straining the binocular vision with high prism power cortical tolerances increase when fusion was aided by central stimuli. Fixation disparity could be extended up to 20' (minutes of are) which is three times the well accepted size of the Panum area.

Fixation, Ocular↗