Previous research has extensively explored visual encoding of smoothly curved, closed contours described by sinusoidal variation of pattern radius as a function of polar angle (RF patterns). Although the contours of many biologically significant objects are curved, we also confront shapes with a more jagged and angular appearance. To study these, we introduce here a novel class of visual stimuli that deform smoothly from a circle to an equilateral polygon with N sides (AF patterns). Threshold measurements reveal that both AF and RF patterns can be discriminated from circles at the same deformation amplitude, approximately 18.0arcsec, which is in the hyperacuity range. Thresholds were slightly higher for patterns with 3.0 cycles than for those with 5.0 cycles. Discrimination between AF and RF patterns was 75% correct at an amplitude that was approximately 3.0 times the threshold amplitude, which implies that AF and RF patterns activate different neural populations. Experiments with jittered patterns in which the contour was broken into several pieces and shifted inward or outward had much less effect on AF patterns than on RF patterns. Similarly, thresholds for single angles of AF patterns showed no significant difference from thresholds for the entire AF pattern. Taken together, these results imply that the visual system incorporates angles explicitly in the representation of closed object contours, but it suggests that angular contours are represented more locally than are curved contours.

The Muscular Dystrophy Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities (MDCHILD) is a new patient-reported outcome measure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The Priority Framework of Outcomes underpins the content for the MDCHILD. The MDCHILD incorporates the health-related priorities of males with DMD and their parents. The MDCHILD was deemed sensible by children, their parents, and health care professionals.