Visual discrimination between small objects and large textured backgrounds

THE remarkable ability of certain higher order insect visual neurones to discriminate between movement of a small object or target and a large textured background has been clearly demonstrated by Palka1,2 and O'Shea and Fraser-Rowell3. In addition, movement of a large textured background such as a windmill pattern is inhibitory to detection of motion of a small target by this neurone, known as the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD). The response of this identifiable neurone to motion of small objects is inhibited by rotation of the windmill pattern over a specific range of high spatial frequencies of the pattern, but is augmented by low spatial frequencies in the pattern. For this neurone we have quantitatively determined the spatial frequency at which the effect of the windmill pattern becomes inhibitory.

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