Behavioural contrast sensitivity of the cat in various visual meridians

Bisti, Silvia; Maffei, Lamberto

doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1974.sp010649

Cited by 127 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Prior to contrast detection learning, CSFs of both eyes in each cat are comparable, and the CSF in each cat peaks around 0.4 c/deg. Bisti and Maffei ever measured CSFs in two cats using stimuli with a large size (diameter 19° visual acuity) but a low luminance (2 cd/m2) level and found the peak CSF was around 0.2 c/deg, which was in good agreement with the CSF evaluation using visually evoked potentials measurement (Berkley & Watkins, 1973;Bisti & Maffei, 1974;Campbell et al, 1973). In this study, a smaller (diameter 8°visual acuity) but higher luminance (19 cd/m 2 ) stimuli were used, and the peak CSF we observed in each of the three cats was around 0.4 c/deg, which was higher than that reported by Bisti and Maffei but could be reconciled by previous findings that the peak CSF increased with stimulus mean luminance and decreased with stimulus size (Jarvis & Wathes, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Contrast Detection Learning Improves Visual Contrast Sensitivity of Cat

Ting¹,

Wang²,

Xu³

et al. 2010

Zoological Research

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Psychological studies on human subjects show that contrast detection learning promote learner's sensitivity to visual stimulus contrast. The underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, three cats (Felis catus) were trained to perform monocularly a contrast detection task by two-alternative forced choice method. The perceptual ability of each cat improved remarkably with learning as indicated by a significantly increased contrast sensitivity to visual stimuli. The learning effect displayed an evident specificity to the eye employed for learning but could partially transfer to the naïve eye, prompting the possibility that contrast detection learning might cause neural plasticity before and after the information from both eyes are merged in the visual pathway. Further, the contrast sensitivity improvement was evident basically around the spatial frequency (SF) used for learning, which suggested that contrast detection learning effect showed, to some extent, a SF specificity. This study indicates that cat exhibits a property of contrast detection learning similar to human subjects and can be used as an animal model for subsequent investigations on the neural correlates that mediate learning-induced contrast sensitivity improvement in humans. Human perceptual learning, including orientation discrimination, motion perception, contrast detection and the spatial frequency (SF) discrimination has been well

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Contrast Detection Learning Improves Visual Contrast Sensitivity of Cat

Ting¹,

Wang²,

Xu³

et al. 2010

Zoological Research

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show abstract

“…the threshold contrast is around 0.5% [6,8]. Psychophysical analysis of other vertebrate species reveals slightly less impressive contrast sensitivity: peaks are around 116 in cats [9]; less than 30 in typical rodents [10,11]; in the 7-30 range in various bird species (for review, see [12]); and around 50 in goldfish [13].…”

Section: (B) Contrast Sensitivity For Large Patterns In Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In large male hoverflies such as Eristalis tenax and Volucella pellucens, contrast sensitivity peaks at between 40 and 100 in the frontal/dorsal acute zone [15,16,19], also at 0.12 cycles per degree. To put this visual performance into perspective, both the absolute maximal contrast sensitivity and the spatial frequency at which it is observed are not dissimilar to those of the domestic cat [9]. Indeed, the peak sensitivity is around 10 times that seen in the rat, and at a similar spatial frequency [11].…”

Section: (B) Contrast Sensitivity For Large Patterns In Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrast sensitivity and the detection of moving patterns and features

O’Carroll

Wiederman

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Theories based on optimal sampling by the retina have been widely applied to visual ecology at the level of the optics of the eye, supported by visual behaviour. This leads to speculation about the additional processing that must lie in between-in the brain itself. But fewer studies have adopted a quantitative approach to evaluating the detectability of specific features in these neural pathways. We briefly review this approach with a focus on contrast sensitivity of two parallel pathways for motion processing in insects, one used for analysis of wide-field optic flow, the other for detection of small features. We further use a combination of optical modelling of image blur and physiological recording from both photoreceptors and higher-order small target motion detector neurons sensitive to small targets to show that such neurons operate right at the limits imposed by the optics of the eye and the noise level of single photoreceptors. Despite this, and the limitation of only being able to use information from adjacent receptors to detect target motion, they achieve a contrast sensitivity that rivals that of wide-field motion sensitive pathways in either insects or vertebrates-among the highest in absolute terms seen in any animal.

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“…The spatial frequency of the grating was around 0*2 c/deg for some of the kittens and 0*45 c/deg for the others. These two spatial frequencies fall in the range of the highest contrast sensitivitiy of the cat (Campbell, Maffei & Piccolino, 1973;Bisti & Maffei, 1974;Blake, Cool & Crawford, 1974). This routine was stopped when the kittens were 3 months old.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective impairment of contrast sensitivity in kittens exposed to periodic gratings.

Fiorentini¹,

Maffei²

1978

The Journal of Physiology

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SUMMARY1. Kittens were exposed to a periodic grating orientated vertically during the critical period of their life.2. At the end of the critical period the amplitude of the response to drifting gratings was found to be reduced at the spatial frequency of exposure in multi-unit and in some single unit recordings at lateral geniculate level. 3. The contrast sensitivity measured with behavioural methods also showed a depression at the spatial frequency of exposure.4. An analysis of the preferred stimulus orientation of cortical units in area 17 showed that all orientations were represented.

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Behavioural contrast sensitivity of the cat in various visual meridians

Abstract: Campbell, Maffei & Piccolino (1973) Assuming that the psychophysical threshold for the cat at each spatial frequency is represented by the contrast at zero voltage, as was the case for human subjects, they determined the contrast sensitivity function for the cat.

Cited by 127 publications

References 17 publications

Contrast Detection Learning Improves Visual Contrast Sensitivity of Cat

Contrast Detection Learning Improves Visual Contrast Sensitivity of Cat

Contrast sensitivity and the detection of moving patterns and features

Selective impairment of contrast sensitivity in kittens exposed to periodic gratings.

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