Binocular combination of contrast signals

We studied the detectability of dichoptically presented vertical grating patterns that varied in the ratio of the contrasts presented to the two eyes. The resulting threshold data fall on a binocular summation contour well described by a power summation equation with an exponent near 2. We studied the effect of adding one-dimensional visual noise, either correlated or uncorrelated between the eyes, to the grating patterns. The addition of uncorrelated noise elevated thresholds uniformly for all interocular ratios, while correlated noise elevated thresholds for stimuli whose ratios were near 1 more than thresholds for other stimuli. We also examined the effects of monocular adaptation to a high-contrast grating on the form of the summation contour. Such adaptation elevates threshold in a manner that varies continuously with the interocular contrast ratio of the test targets, and increases the amount of binocular summation. Each of several current models can explain some of our results, but no one of them seems capable of accounting for all three sets of data. We therefore develop a new multiple-channel model, the distribution model, which postulates a family of linear binocular channels that vary in their sensitivities to the two monocular inputs. This model can account for our data and those of others concerning binocular summation, masking, adaptation and interocular transfer. We conclude that there exists a system of ocular dominance channels in the human visual system.

[1]  Randolph Blake,et al.  Phase effects in monoptic and dichoptic temporal integration: Flicker and motion detection , 1981, Vision Research.

[2]  S. Zeki.  Uniformity and diversity of structure and function in rhesus monkey prestriate visual cortex. , 1978, The Journal of physiology.

[3]  J. Bacon.  The interaction of dichoptically presented spatial gratings , 1976, Vision Research.

[4]  C. Braccini,et al.  A noise masking experiment in grating perception at threshold: The implications on binocular summation , 1980, Vision Research.

[5]  M. Sanders.  Handbook of Sensory Physiology , 1975 .

[6]  Alexander I. Cogan,et al.  Human binocular interaction: Towards a neural model , 1987, Vision Research.

[7]  Gordon E. Legge,et al.  Binocular contrast summation—II. Quadratic summation , 1984, Vision Research.

[8]  H. Levitt.  Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics. , 1971, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[9]  P. O. Bishop.  Neurophysiology of Binocular Single Vision and Stereopsis , 1973 .

[10]  N. Graham,et al.  Detection of grating patterns containing two spatial frequencies: a comparison of single-channel and multiple-channels models. , 1971, Vision research.

[11]  Theodore E. Cohn,et al.  Binocular luminance detection: Availability of more than one central interaction , 1981, Vision Research.

[12]  P. O. Bishop,et al.  Discrimination of orientation and position disparities by binocularly activated neurons in cat straite cortex. , 1977, Journal of neurophysiology.

[13]  R. M. Boynton,et al.  Human binocular summation at absolute threshold. , 1974, Vision research.

[14]  J. Wolfe,et al.  A purely binocular mechanism in human vision , 1981, Vision Research.

[15]  D. G. Green,et al.  Monocular versus Binocular Visual Acuity , 1965, Nature.

[16]  B. Julesz,et al.  Spatial-frequency masking in vision: critical bands and spread of masking. , 1972, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[17]  Gordon E. Legge,et al.  Binocular contrast summation—I. Detection and discrimination , 1984, Vision Research.

[18]  C. Blakemore,et al.  A second neural mechanism of binocular depth discrimination , 1972, The Journal of physiology.

[19]  C Blakemore,et al.  On the existence of neurones in the human visual system selectively sensitive to the orientation and size of retinal images , 1969, The Journal of physiology.

[20]  J. Lund,et al.  Interlaminar connections and pyramidal neuron organisation in the visual cortex, area 17, of the Macaque monkey , 1975 .

[21]  B Moulden,et al.  A Simultaneous Shift in Apparent Direction: Further Evidence for a “Distribution-Shift” Model of Direction Coding , 1980, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[22]  R. Blake,et al.  Selective adaptation of monocular and binocular neurons in human vision. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[23]  C W Eriksen,et al.  Independence of successive inputs and uncorrelated error in visual form perception. , 1966, Journal of experimental psychology.

[24]  C W Eriksen,et al.  Binocular summation over time in the perception of form at brief durations. , 1968, Journal of experimental psychology.

[25]  I. Ohzawa,et al.  Contrast gain control in the cat's visual system. , 1985, Journal of neurophysiology.

[26]  J. Stjernschantz,et al.  The miotic effect of substance P on the isolated rabbit iris. , 1981, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[27]  R Blake,et al.  Interocular transfer of visual aftereffects. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[28]  J. Robson,et al.  Discrimination at threshold: Labelled detectors in human vision , 1981, Vision Research.

[29]  Randolph Blake,et al.  On utrocular discrimination , 1979 .

[30]  Robert Fox,et al.  The psychophysical inquiry into binocular summation , 1973 .

[31]  R. Fox,et al.  Binocular detection of vertical and horizontal line segments , 1975, Vision Research.

[32]  J. Robson,et al.  Grating summation in fovea and periphery , 1978, Vision Research.

[33]  D. Mitchell,et al.  Residual binocular interaction in stereoblind humans , 1980, Vision Research.

[34]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex , 1962, The Journal of physiology.

[35]  Brian J. Murphy,et al.  Summation and discrimination of gratings moving in opposite directions , 1980, Vision Research.

[36]  L MATIN,et al.  Binocular summation at the absolute threshold of peripheral vision. , 1962, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[37]  J. Movshon,et al.  Monocular and binocular detection of moving sinusoidal gratings , 1981, Vision Research.

[38]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex , 1968, The Journal of physiology.

[39]  R. Blake,et al.  Further developments in binocular summation , 1981, Perception & psychophysics.

[40]  D. M. Green,et al.  Signal detection theory and psychophysics , 1966 .

[41]  I. Ohzawa,et al.  The binocular organization of complex cells in the cat's visual cortex. , 1986, Journal of neurophysiology.

[42]  I. Ohzawa,et al.  The binocular organization of simple cells in the cat's visual cortex. , 1986, Journal of neurophysiology.

[43]  P. Lennie,et al.  Pattern-selective adaptation in visual cortical neurones , 1979, Nature.

[44]  C. Osgood,et al.  A new interpretation of figural after-effects. , 1952, Psychological review.

[45]  J. Nachmias,et al.  Discrimination of simple and complex gratings , 1975, Vision Research.

[46]  Quick Rf.  A vector-magnitude model of contrast detection. , 1974 .

[47]  Daniel G Bobrow,et al.  On data-limited and resource-limited processes , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.