The spatial resolution capacity of human foveal retina

An image on the retina of a human eye enters the visual system through an array of photoreceptors that sets the boundaries on the spatial detail available for neural representation. In order to investigate the extent to which the input spatial detail is preserved by the human neural system, we compare the anatomical spatial limits as determined by the Nyquist frequency, the highest spatial frequency reconstructable from the cone array, and measures of human acuity, the minimum angle resolvable. We find that the anatomical Nyquist limits determined along the temporal horizontal meridian of a well-studied human retina (Curcio, Sloan, Packer, Hendrickson & Kalina, 1987b) offer a reasonable prediction of human acuity within the retinal region extending from slightly off the exact foveal center to about 2.0 deg of retinal eccentricity. However, we find a narrow peak of anatomical resolution at the foveal center where the acuity appears to be overestimated by cone spacing.

[1]  J. Yellott.  Spectral analysis of spatial sampling by photoreceptors: Topological disorder prevents aliasing , 1982, Vision Research.

[2]  Maynard C. Wheeler,et al.  VISUAL ACUITY WITHIN THE AREA CENTRALIS AND ITS RELATION TO EYE MOVEMENTS AND FIXATION , 1928 .

[3]  P K Ahnelt,et al.  Identification of a subtype of cone photoreceptor, likely to be blue sensitive, in the human retina , 1987, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[4]  N Drasdo,et al.  Non-linear projection of the retinal image in a wide-angle schematic eye. , 1974, The British journal of ophthalmology.

[5]  A. Hendrickson,et al.  Distribution of cones in human and monkey retina: individual variability and radial asymmetry. , 1987, Science.

[6]  Christine A. Curcio.  Diameters of presumed cone apertures in human retina (A) , 1987 .

[7]  S. Schein.  Anatomy of macaque fovea and spatial densities of neurons in foveal representation , 1988, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[8]  J. Hirsch,et al.  Quality of the primate photoreceptor lattice and limits of spatial vision , 1984, Vision Research.

[9]  Michael E. Selzer,et al.  Handbook of Physiology, Section 1 , 1978, Neurology.

[10]  A. Cowey,et al.  The ganglion cell and cone distributions in the monkey's retina: Implications for central magnification factors , 1985, Vision Research.

[11]  W. Peddie,et al.  Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics , 1924, Nature.

[12]  W. H. Miller,et al.  Does cone positional disorder limit resolution? , 1987, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[13]  S. Schein,et al.  Density profile of blue-sensitive cones along the horizontal meridian of macaque retina. , 1985, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[14]  W. H. Miller,et al.  Photoreceptor diameter and spacing for highest resolving power. , 1977, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[15]  G. Westheimer.  The spatial grain of the perifoveal visual field , 1982, Vision Research.

[16]  H. Helmholtz.  Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics , 1963 .

[17]  D. G. Green.  Regional variations in the visual acuity for interference fringes on the retina , 1970, The Journal of physiology.

[18]  A. Hendrickson,et al.  A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the human fovea during development , 1986, Vision Research.

[19]  A. Cowey,et al.  Striate cortex lesions and visual acuity of the rhesus monkey. , 1963, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[20]  Tomaso Poggio,et al.  Computational vision and regularization theory , 1985, Nature.

[21]  Elek Ludvigh,et al.  Extrafoveal Visual Acuity as Measured with Snellen Test-Letters , 1941 .

[22]  E. Ludvigh.  EXTRAFOVEAL VISUAL ACUITY AS MEASURED WITH SNELLEN TEST-LETTERS , 1941 .

[23]  H. von Helmholtz,et al.  Helmholtz's treatise on physiological optics, Vol. 1, Trans. from the 3rd German ed. , 1924 .

[24]  David R. Williams,et al.  Seeing through the photoreceptor mosaic , 1986, Trends in Neurosciences.

[25]  Gary D. Bernard,et al.  Averaging over the foveal receptor aperture curtails aliasing , 1983, Vision Research.

[26]  L L Sloan,et al.  The photopic acuity-luminance function with special reference to parafoveal vision. , 1968, Vision research.

[27]  William H. Miller,et al.  Ocular Optical Filtering , 1979 .

[28]  J. Yellott.  Spectral consequences of photoreceptor sampling in the rhesus retina. , 1983, Science.

[29]  D C Van Essen,et al.  Shifter circuits: a computational strategy for dynamic aspects of visual processing. , 1987, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[30]  David Williams.  Aliasing in human foveal vision , 1985, Vision Research.

[31]  Christine A. Curcio,et al.  A whole mount method for sequential analysis of photoreceptor and ganglion cell topography in a single retina , 1987, Vision Research.

[32]  Gerald Westheimer,et al.  Optical Properties of Vertebrate Eyes , 1972 .

[33]  A. Hendrickson,et al.  Human photoreceptor topography , 1990, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[34]  R. Bracewell.  The Fourier Transform and Its Applications , 1966 .

[35]  Ronald N. Bracewell,et al.  The Fourier Transform and Its Applications , 1966 .

[36]  F. Plum.  Handbook of Physiology. , 1960 .