Temporal frequency characteristics of spatial interaction in human vision

Summary In psychophysical experiments the bright-dark contrast effects observed in a steady test-field were measured as a function of the temporal frequency of an inducing-field modulated symmetrically about the test-field luminance. The frequency-contrast functions obtained from these measurements were interpreted as reflecting the temporal frequency characteristics of the lateral pathways within the B and D systems (the on-center and off-center neurons) in human vision. Psychophysical evidence is further presented that the lateral neural pathways have lower temporal cut-off frequencies than the straight-through pathways. The results are discussed in terms of the frequency characteristics of the center and surround of the receptive fields of on-center and off-center neurons. It is doubtful, however, whether the psychophysical results can be fully explained by the properties of the single-unit receptive field mechanism.