Partitioning contrast or luminance disparity into perceived intensity and rotation

While most of the work on stereopsis focuses on geometric disparities, humans also respond to intensity (contrast or luminance) disparities in the absence of geometric disparities. A rectangular-wave grating viewed with an intensity disparity engenders two perceptions: a perceived intensity, and a perceived rotation of the individual bars of the grating (the Venetian blind effect). Measuring perceived intensity and perceived rotation in gratings with intensity disparities, we found that the two degrees of freedom from the intensities presented to each eye are conserved in the form of two perceptions: perceived intensity is related to the sum of the grating intensities and perceived rotation is related to the difference. Perceived rotation as a function of intensity disparity was then modeled as a simple difference in the neural response of each eye. Perceived contrast and brightness as a function of intensity disparity were modeled using the two-stage gain-control model.     

Temporal dynamics of the Venetian blind effect

When square wave gratings are viewed binocularly with lower luminance or contrast in one eye, the individual bars of the grating appear to rotate around a vertical axis (Venetian blind effect). The effect has typically been thought to occur due to retinal disparities that result from irradiation and, therefore, are entirely entoptic. If so, the visual system should process disparities from a luminance or contrast disparity and a geometric disparity at the same rate. Studies of motion-in-depth using geometric disparities have shown that the visual system is unable to process depth cues when those cues are oscillated at frequencies greater than 5 Hz. By changing contrast (experiments one and two) and geometric (experiment three) disparity cues over time, the present study measured the frequency at which both the perception of motion-in-depth and the perception of depth diminish. The perception of motion-in-depth from contrast disparities decreased near 1.1 Hz (experiments one and four) and the perception of depth from contrast disparities decreased near 1.3 Hz (experiments one, two and four); both of which are lower than the frequency where depth from a geometric disparity diminished (near 4.8 Hz in experiment three). The differences between the dynamics of depth from contrast and geometric disparities suggest that the perception arises from separate neural mechanisms.     

Resolution of binocular rivalry: Perceptual misbinding of color

Is neural binding of color and form required for perception of a unified colored object? Individual cells selectively tuned to both color and orientation are proposed to moot the binding problem. This study reveals perceptual misbinding of color, thereby revealing separate neural representations of color and form followed by a subsequent binding process. Low luminance-contrast, rivalrous chromatic gratings were presented dichoptically. Each grating had alternating chromatic and gray stripes (e.g., red/gray in the left eye, green/gray in the right eye). Observers viewed the two rivalrous, 2 cpd gratings for 1 min. The duration of exclusive visibility was measured for four percepts: left-eye stimulus, right-eye stimulus, fusion of the two colors, or a two-color grating (e.g. a red/green grating). The percept of a two-color grating (misbinding) was observed with Michelson luminance contrast in the grating up to 20%. In general, for a given level of luminance contrast either misbinding (low luminance contrast) or color mixture (high luminance contrast) was observed, but not both of them. The perceived two-color gratings show that two rivalrous chromaticities are both represented neurally when color and form are combined to give a unified percept. "Resolution" of competing chromatic signals from the two eyes is not restricted to color dominance and color mixture. The transition from misbinding to color mixture by increasing luminance contrast shows that luminance edges have an important role in correct localization of color.     

Color and luminance in the perception of 1- and 2-dimensional motion.

An isoluminant color grating usually appears to move more slowly than a luminance grating that has the same physical speed. Yet a grating defined by both color and luminance is seen as perceptually unified and moving at a single intermediate speed. In experiments measuring perceived speed and direction, it was found that color- and luminance-based motion signals are combined differently in the perception of 1-D motion than they are in the perception of 2-D motion. Adding color to a moving 1-D luminance pattern, a grating, slows its perceived speed. Adding color to a moving 2-D luminance pattern, a plaid made of orthogonal gratings, leaves its perceived speed unchanged. Analogous results occur for the perception of the direction of 2-D motion. The visual system appears to discount color when analyzing the motion of luminance-bearing 2-D patterns. This strategy has adaptive advantages, making the sensing of object motion more veridical without sacrificing the ability to see motion at isoluminance.     

Optimal occluder luminance for seeing stationary visual phantoms

If the central portion of a vertical grating is covered up by an opaque horizontal occluder, a phantom grating is perceived to continue across the occluded region. The phantoms can be seen even if the inducing grating is stationary, but are not seen when the occluder luminance is near to the space-average luminance of the grating. Optimal occluder luminance for the perception of phantoms was measured, while occluder height and the inducing grating contrast varied. Phantom visibility was maximal when the occluder luminance was near to either the minimum or to the maximum luminance of the grating. When the occluder luminance was set between the two levels, opposite-phase illusory gratings were dominantly observed. The reciprocal relationship between the visual phantoms and the grating induction effect of McCourt (1982) is discussed.     

The oblique effect depends on perceived, rather than physical, orientation and direction

Observers can better discriminate orientation or direction near the cardinal axes than near an oblique axis. We investigated whether this well-known oblique effect is determined by the physical or the perceived axis of the stimuli. Using the simultaneous tilt illusion, we generated perceptually different orientations for the same inner (target) grating by contrasting it with differently oriented outer gratings. Subjects compared the target orientation with a set of reference orientations. If orientation discriminability was determined by the physical orientations, the psychometric curves for the same target grating would be identical. Instead, all subjects produced steeper curves when perceiving target gratings near vertically as opposed to more obliquely. This result of orientation discrimination was confirmed by using adaptation-generated tilt aftereffect to manipulate the perceived orientation of a given physical orientation. Moreover, we obtained the same result in direction discrimination by using motion repulsion to alter the perceived direction of a given physical direction. We conclude that when the perceived orientation or direction differs from the physical orientation or direction, the oblique effect depends on perceived, rather than physical, orientation or direction. Finally, as a by-product of the study, we found that, around the vertical direction, motion repulsion is much stronger when the inducing direction is more clockwise to the test direction than when it is more counterclockwise.     

Visual resolution of motion ambiguity with periodic luminance- and contrast-domain stimuli.

Visual motion processes were studied with luminance- and contrast-modulated gratings. A sine-wave luminance grating was displaced abruptly back and forth by 3/16 cycle. The display sequence is ambiguous in that each 3/16-cycle phase shift (short-path motion) could just as readily be seen as a 13/16-cycle shift (long-path motion) in the opposite direction. By varying the duration of the interval (IFI) between the two phase positions, the luminance of the IFI, or the spatial frequency of the grating, it was possible to bias the ambiguous percept in favor of short-path motions or long-path motions. A contrast-modulated grating displaced through 3/16 cycle always appeared t undergo short-path motion. Current motion models which incorporate Reichardt-type/energy mechanisms and certain types of auxiliary signal transformations which precede those mechanisms do not adequately explain the effects of IFI intensity on the perceived motion of a sinusoidal grating or the effect of IFI duration on the perceived motion of a contrast-modulated grating.     

Illusory perception of gratings stimulating a small number of neurones

We studied pattern perceptions caused by drifting gratings presented monocularly in the nasal and temporal visual fields at various suprathreshold contrasts. The grating and its surround and background were matched in luminance. Small gratings produced illusions and reduced perceptions. When grating area or contrast increased from a subthreshold value, the gratings were first seen as mere flashes. Then each grating was sometimes perceived as a single small bright spot or point. Next each grating was seen as a single dark or bright line. Finally the stimuli were perceived as gratings consisting of several bars. Orientation or direction of movement were perceived correctly, but velocity, colour and number of bars were often perceived as illusions. Thus, in spite of the illusions, some features of the stimuli could have allowed correct discriminations. The area and contrast limits of illusory perception depended on eccentricity. Irrespective of retinal size, the stimuli were not perceived correctly as gratings at any eccentricities when the gratings were smaller than about 1 × 1 mm in their calculated cortical area and stimulated a small constant number of retinal ganglion cells. Relations between the results and retinal aliasing, cortical columns and phase locking of neuronal oscillations are discussed.     

Luminance texture increases perceived speed

Previous psychophysical experiments have demonstrated that various factors can exert a considerable influence on the apparent velocity of visual stimuli. Here, we investigated the effects of superimposing static luminance texture on the apparent speed of a drifting grating. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that superimposing static luminance texture on a drifting luminance modulated grating can produce an increase in perceived speed. This supports the hypothesis that texture changes perceived speed by providing landmarks to assess relative motion. In Experiment 2, we showed that contrary to static luminance texture, dynamic luminance texture did not increase perceived speed. This demonstrates that texture must provide reliable spatial landmarks in order to generate an increase in perceived speed. The results of Experiment 3 demonstrate that perceived speed depends on the size of the area covered by texture. This suggests that luminance texture and the motion stimulus interacted with each other over a limited spatial scale and that these local responses are then pooled to determine the speed of the motion stimulus. In Experiment 4, we showed that static texture contrast could produce a greater effect than motion stimulus contrast on perceived speed and that these effects could still be observed at brief presentation times. We discuss these findings in the context of models proposed to account for phenomena in the perception of speed.     

Color and luminance share a common motion pathway

Following exposure to a moving grating of bars differing only in luminance, a motion aftereffect (MAE) is observed on a stationary grating of bars differing only in chrominance. This suggests that the motion of equiluminous chromatic stimuli is sensed by a channel that responds to both luminance and chrominance and not by a separate channel specialized for the motion of colored stimuli. However, adding color to a low contrast luminance stimulus actually reduces its effectiveness at creating or nulling a MAE, indicating that the response of the motion pathway to color is qualitively different from its response to luminance. In addition, a chromatic stimulus demonstrates a dissociation between perceived speed, MAE speed and speed required to null the MAE that is absent for a luminance stimulus.     

The role of color in the motion system.

We have examined the ability of observers to determine the direction of movement of a variety of colored plaid patterns. When the two plaid components are of unequal spatial frequency or of unequal luminance or chromatic contrast, observers judge the direction of movement incorrectly. These errors are correlated with a misjudgement of the speeds of the two components. Our results provide support for an initial decomposition into oriented components followed by a subsequent component-to-pattern recombination of moving equiluminant and colored plaids. At equal multiples of threshold contrast a moving luminance grating is about 8 times more powerful than a moving equiluminant grating in determining the apparent direction of motion of a plaid. When both are present, luminance and color do not interact linearly. Color and motion must be processed in parallel in at least partially separate pathways.     

What is the Denominator for Contrast Normalisation?

The perceived speed of 1 c/deg sinusoidal gratings of contrast 0.02 was measured in the presence of high contrast (0.50) 1 c/deg sinusoidal gratings (called modifiers). The modifiers drifted or were counterphase modulated at various temporal frequencies. The presence of a modifier with temporal frequencies (0 and 3 Hz) lower than the low contrast moving grating decreased its perceived speed while the presence of modifiers with higher temporal frequencies (8, 12 and 16 Hz) increased its perceived speed. A modifier of the same temporal frequency (6 Hz) as the standard grating had no effect upon the perceived speed of the low contrast gratings. Moving modifiers are more effective than counterphase flickering modifiers in biasing the perceived speed of low contrast gratings if they move in the same direction as the test grating and less effective if they move in the opposite direction. Finally, a modifier presented in an annulus surrounding the test grating is more effective than a modifier presented in a circular patch above or below the test grating in raising the perceived speed of low contrast gratings. This suggests that perceived speed depends on the ratio of low and high temporal frequency signals averaged over a significant area of the visual field. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd     

A common mechanism for the perception of first-order and second-order apparent motion

A common mechanism for perceiving first-order, luminance-defined, and second-order, texture-contrast defined apparent motion between two element locations is indicated by: (1) transitivity--whether or not motion is perceived is inter-changeably affected by activationally equivalent luminance and contrast changes at each location, (2) local integration--whether or not motion is perceived depends on the net activation change resulting from simultaneous background-relative luminance and background-relative contrast changes at the same element location, and (3) inseparability--apparent motion is not perceived through independent first- or second-order mechanisms when luminance and contrast co-vary at the same location. These results, which are predicted by the response characteristics of directionally selective cells in areas V1, MT, and MST, are not instead attributable to changes in the location of the most salient element (third-order motion), attentive feature tracking, or artifactual first-order motion. Their inconsistency with Lu and Sperling's [Lu, Z., Sperling, G. (1995a). Attention-generated apparent motion. Nature 377, 237, Lu, Z., Sperling, G. (2001). Three-systems theory of human visual motion perception: review and update. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 18, 2331] model, which specifies independent first- and second-order mechanisms, may be due to computational requirements particular to the motion of discrete objects with distinct boundaries defined by spatial differences in luminance, texture contrast, or both.     

Chromatic properties of the colour-shading effect

The 'colour-shading effect' describes the phenomenon whereby chromatic variations affect the magnitude of perceived shape-from-shading in luminance patterns. A previous study showed that in mixed colour-plus-luminance sine-wave plaids, impressions of depth in the luminance component were enhanced by non-aligned chromatic components, and suppressed by aligned chromatic components [Nature Neuroscience 6 (2003) 641-644]. Here we examine the chromatic determinants of these effects. Colour contrast was defined along the cardinal axes of colour space in order to isolate the L-M and S-(L+M) post-receptoral chromatic mechanisms. We found no difference in the potency of L-M-only and S-(L+M)-only gratings, either for enhancing or suppressing perceived depth. Moreover, the magnitude of depth-suppression was no different for any combination of depth-enhancing and depth-suppressing cardinal directions. Finally we tested whether the visual system carried the assumption that natural shading is tinged with blue, by measuring perceived depth in a colour-plus-luminance grating that was made to appear either bright-yellow/dark-blue or bright-blue/dark-yellow. However there was no difference in the magnitude of depth-suppression between conditions, suggesting that the visual system does not make any assumption about the colour of natural shading. Taken together, the results suggest that while the colour-shading effect is highly sensitive to colour contrast, it is agnostic with respect to colour direction.     

Perceiving motion transparency in the absence of component direction differences

The simultaneous perception of multiple motion components within the same region in the visual field is a difficult processing task, which can be solved by human observers for a range of transparently moving stimuli. We use transparently moving gratings to study this phenomenon psychophysically, focussing on configurations in which individual components move in the same direction and can only be discriminated by speed differences. We first demonstrate that the stimuli are perceived as transparent and then proceed to quantify how the strength of motion transparency changes while component grating parameters such as fundamental spatial frequency, speed and luminance are varied. The results were consistent with perception resolving a signal detection task of separating two superimposed global motion signals corresponding to each of the components. We also identify the importance of broadband stimuli containing edges, both for perceiving transparency with the same direction stimulus configuration, and for static transparency. The local density of edges has a direct influence on the strength of perceived transparency, suggesting that local motion detection at the edges of the stimuli, which is sensitive to speed differences, may be critical to solve the task. The work suggests that there may be a simultaneous retinotopic representation of the two speeds of motion analogous to that accomplished by the motion direction tuned neurons found across regions of visual cortex.     

The influence of color on the perception of luminance motion

We examined the role of color in the processing of motion of a luminance-varying pattern by alternating the color of a moving pattern and measuring the luminance contrast required for accurate discrimination of the motion direction. We report that the contrast threshold for perceiving the direction of motion of luminance-varying patterns is greatly elevated when the mean chromaticity of the moving luminance pattern alternates between two hues. Thus, color plays a critical role in the discrimination of luminance motion direction. The magnitude of the threshold elevation is directly related to the magnitude of the LM opponent color contrast produced by the color alternation. S-cone contrast produces little or no effect. The interference produced by color alternation was greatly reduced in the retinal periphery. Our results indicate that first-order luminance motion mechanisms are sensitive to the color of moving objects as coded by a differencing of the outputs of L and M cones. Contrary to the widely accepted notion that luminance-defined motion is processed primarily in the spectrally broadband magnocellular (M) pathway, our results suggest that the hue-selective parvocellular (P) mechanisms provide input to first-order motion detectors.     

Heading and path percepts from visual flow and eye pursuit signals.

The percept of self-motion through the environment is supported by visual motion signals and eye movement signals. The interaction between these signals by decoupling of the eye movement and the pattern of retinal motion during brief simulated ego-movement on straight or circular trajectories was studied. A new response method enabled subjects to report perceived destination and perceived curvature of their future path simultaneously. Various combinations of simulated gaze rotation in the retinal flow and eye pursuit were investigated. Simulated gaze rotation ranged from consistent and larger than, to opponent and larger than eye pursuit. It was found that the perceived destination shifts non-linearly with the mismatch between simulated gaze rotation and eye pursuit. The non-linearity is also revealed in the perceived tangent heading direction and perceived path curvature, although to different extent in different subjects. For the same retinal flow, eye pursuit that is consistent with the simulated gaze rotation reduces heading error and the perceived path straightens out. In contrast, perceived path and/or heading do not become more curved or more biased in the direction opposite to pursuit when the eye -in-head rotation is opposite to the simulated gaze rotation. These observations point to modulation of the effect of the extra-retinal pursuit signal by the visual evidence for eye rotation. In a second experiment, one presented to a stationary eye the sum of a component of simulated gaze rotation and radial flow. It was found that the bi-circular flow component, that characterizes the change in pattern of flow directions by the gaze rotation, induces a shift of perceived heading without appreciable perceived path curvature. Conversely, the complementary component of simulated gaze rotation (bi-radial flow) evokes a percept of motion on a curved path with a small tangent heading error. It was suggested that bi-circular and bi-radial flow components contribute primarily to percepts of heading and path curvature, respectively.     

Does early non-linearity account for second-order motion?

A contrast-modulated (CM) pattern is formed when a modulating or envelope function imposes local contrast variations on a higher-frequency carrier. Motion may be seen when the envelope drifts across a stationary carrier and this has been attributed to a second-order pathway for motion. However, an early compressive response to luminance (e.g. in the photoreceptors) would introduce a distortion product at the modulating frequency. We used a nulling method to measure the distortion product, and then asked whether this early distortion could account for perception of second-order motion. The first stimulus sequence consisted of alternate frames of CM (100% modulation) and luminance-modulated (LM) patterns. Carriers were either 2-D binary noise (4 x 4 min arc dots) or a 4 c/deg grating, both modulated at 0.6 c/deg. The carrier was stationary while the phase of the modulating signal (LM alternating with CM) stepped successively through 90 degrees to the left or right. Motion was seen in a direction opposite to the phase stepping, consistent with early compressive distortion that induces an out-of-phase LM component into the CM stimulus. We measured distortion amplitude by adding LM to the CM frames to null the perceived motion. Distortion increased as the square of carrier contrast, as predicted by the compressive transducer. It also increased with modulation drift rate, implying that the transducer is time-dependent, not static. Thus early compressive non-linearity does induce first-order artefacts into second-order stimuli. Nevertheless this does not account for second-order motion, since perceived motion of second-order sequences (CM in every frame) could in general not be nulled by adding LM components. We conclude that two pathways for motion do exist.     

Exposure duration affects the perceived direction of cyclopean type II plaids

This study investigated the effect of exposure duration on the perceived direction of cyclopean Type I and Type II plaids moving in the X/Y plane. The cyclopean plaids were created from grating components defined by binocular disparity embedded in a dynamic random-dot stereogram. The results showed that the cyclopean Type I plaid appeared to move in the intersection-of-constraints (IOC) direction across the range of exposures tested. However, the cyclopean Type II plaids appeared to move in a direction different from the IOC with short exposures but near the IOC with long exposures. This perceived directional shift was also obtained with luminance-defined Type II plaids. A common pattern-motion mechanism that processes cyclopean and luminance motion signals appears responsible for the perceived directional shift of the Type II plaids.     

Readily visible changes in color contrast are insufficient to stimulate accommodation

In an earlier study (Wolfe & Owens, 1981) it was reported that humans could not accommodate to an insoluminant red-green border. However, recent masking studies (Switkes, Bradley & DeValois, 1988) have shown that, using an appropriately normalized contrast metric, contrast decrements similar to those produced by defocus are equally visible for color or luminance modulated grating patterns. We have compared accommodative responses to 1.75 c/deg gratings that consisted of either isochromatic luminance modulations or isoluminant red-green color modulations. All four observers could accommodate accurately to luminance modulated gratings over a wide range of contrasts. However, no appropriate accommodative responses were obtained even for the highest contrast color modulated gratings. These results show the changes in color contrast are ineffective as stimuli for the human accommodative response even when the changes in chromatic contrast accompanying defocus are readily perceived.