Foveal perceptive fields in the human visual system measured with simultaneous contrast in grids and bars

Spillmann, Lothar

doi:10.1007/bf00586993

Cited by 68 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…lung and Spillmann (1970) have explained this illusion in terms of the interaction of excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields of retinal ganglion cells, with net inhibition occurring at the grid intersections being responsible for the perception of the dark spots. Their interpretation is consistent with the data thus far available on this illusion (e.g., lung & Spillmann, 1970;Spillmann, 1971;Spillmann & Levine, 1971). On the basis of their account, if it were possible to reduce the influence of the inhibitory receptive fields of the retinal ganglion cells, the illusion would be attenuated or eliminated.…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

Dark adaptation and the Hermann grid illusion

Wist

1976

Perception & Psychophysics

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The latency of the perception of the dark spot at the intersection of a Hermann grid was measured before and after dark adaptation. It was found that dark adaptation significantly increased the latency of perception of the spot while light adaptation had no effect. This finding was predicted from the lung and Spillman account of the Hermann grid illusion and from the Kuffler et al. finding that inhibitory receptive fields of the cat's retinal ganglion cells are reduced in size and responsiveness after dark adaptation. The significance of this finding in relation to other simultaneous contrast phenomena is discussed. Wist (1974) found that the visibility of Mach bands is significantly reduced when a stepwise luminance gradient with successive luminance steps staggered in depth is viewed binocularly. When this gradient is monocularly viewed so that all steps appear in the frontoparallel plane, strong Mach bands are visible. Thus the Mach band visibility is dependent on the adjacency in stereoscopic depth of the successive luminance steps, with greater depth adjacency resulting in greater variability. This fmding suggests that the lateral inhibition postulated by Ratliff (1965) to be responsible for the Mach band phenomenon at the retinal level can be disinhibited at the cortical level. Furthermore, it is consistent with the findings of several other recent studies on the role of depth adjacency in mediating brightness of whiteness contrast. Gogel and Mershon (1969) found that the magnitude of the simultaneous whiteness contrast between a disk and surround annulus was directly related to the adjacency in perceived depth between these stimuli. Similarly, Mershon (1972) found that the perceived whiteness contrast between two luminous squares was a function of both their lateral and depth separation. Also, Wist and Susen (1973) found that the perceived brightness difference between the two halves of the annulus in the Koffka ring illusion was a function of the perceived stereoscopic depth interval between the line bisecting the annulus and the annulus itself.Given that depth adjacency has been clearly shown to affect several instances of brightness or whiteness contrast, the question arose as to whether further instances of brightness contrast are similarly affected. The present study was provoked by a failure to find such an effect on the Hermann

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supporting

confidence: 86%

Dark adaptation and the Hermann grid illusion

Wist

1976

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…However, conflicting evidence from recent studies has cast doubt on this explanation (J. Levine, Spillmann, & Wolf, 1980;Lingelbach, Block, Hatzky, & Reisinger, 1985;Lingelbach & Ehrenstein, 2002;Schiller & Carvey, 2005;Spillmann, 1971Spillmann, , 1994Spillmann & Levine 1971). Recently, Schiller and Carvey proposed a new interpretation, focusing on certain properties of the S1-type simple cells in the primary visual cortex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of orientation processing in the scintillating grid illusion

Qian

Kawabe

Yamada

et al. 2012

Atten Percept Psychophys

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In the scintillating grid illusion, illusory dark spots are perceived on white patches at the intersections of gray bars. Previous studies have suggested that processing related to the orientation of the bars plays a role in this illusion, but the specific underlying mechanisms are unclear.In the present study, we investigated the role of orientation processing across the intersection in generating the scintillating grid illusion. The results revealed that the illusion was attenuated when the patch was located at the intersection of short bars (Experiment 1), irrespective of the spatial distance between patches (Experiment 2). The local cruciform patterns determined the strength of the illusion, even when lateral offset of the patches was employed (Experiment 3). The illusion was observed even when a small spatial gap was introduced around the patches. A larger gap produced a weaker illusion (Experiment 4). Spatial offsets of the bars across the gapped intersection greatly reduced the illusion (Experiment 5). We discuss these findings with regard to the activity of S1-type simple cells that respond to the luminance along an oriented edge across the intersection.

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“…It has also been shown (Spillmann 1971) that the size of the perceptive fields, measured by psychophysical methods, as well as the size of the receptive fields, assessed * Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grants 1.187.85 and 3.940 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Attention and eye movement control: An overview

Groner

1989

Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci

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A review of recent experimental and theoretical findings is presented which relates the results of neurophysiological and psychological research on attention and eye movement to cognitive theorizing. With respect to the relation between shifts of attention and saccadic eye movements, several experiments have demonstrated that it is possible to dissociate the line of attention from the gaze direction. On the other hand, there is some indirect (although not yet conclusive) evidence that saccadic eye movements always produce a concomitant shift of attention. Another question is whether there is a moment-to-moment control of each consecutive saccade and latency or whether indirect control models (i.e. planning several saccades in advance) are more appropriate. The function of attentional processes which have to coordinate stimulus driven (bottom-up) and concept driven (top-down) mechanisms are discussed and related to some studies investigating local and global scanpaths.

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Foveal perceptive fields in the human visual system measured with simultaneous contrast in grids and bars

Cited by 68 publications

References 41 publications

Dark adaptation and the Hermann grid illusion

Dark adaptation and the Hermann grid illusion

The role of orientation processing in the scintillating grid illusion

Attention and eye movement control: An overview

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