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Much of the debate surrounding the precise functional role of brain mechanisms implicated in the processing of human faces can be explained when considering that studies into early-stage neural representations of the spatial arrangement of facial features are potentially contaminated by “higher-level” cognitive attributes associated with human faces. One way to bypass such attributes would be to employ ambiguous stimuli that are not biased toward any particular object class and analyze neural activity in response to those stimuli in a manner similar to traditional reverse correlation for mapping visual receptive fields. Accordingly, we sought to derive whole face representations directly from neural activity in the human brain using electroencephalography (EEG). We presented ambiguous fractal noise stimuli to human participants and asked them to rate each stimulus along a “face not present” to “face present” continuum while simultaneously recording EEGs. All EEGs were subjected to a time–frequency analysis near 170 ms (negative amplitudes near 170 ms post-stimulus onset have been linked to early face processing) for five different frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) on a trial-by-trial basis, independent of the behavioral responses. Images containing apparent face-like structure were obtained for theta through gamma frequency bands for strong negative amplitudes near 170 ms post-stimulus onset. The presence of the face-like structure in the spatial images derived from brain signals was objectively verified using both Fourier methods and trained neural networks. The results support the use of a modified reverse correlation technique with EEG as a non-biased assessment of brain processes involved in the complex integration of spatial information into objects such as human faces.

Stereoscopic vision uses the disparity between the images received by the two eyes to derive three-dimensional estimates. Here, we were interested in providing a measure of the strength of binocular vision alternate to disparity processing. In particular, we wanted to assess the spatial dependence of sensitivity to detect interocular correlation (IOC). Thus we designed dichoptic stimuli composed of bandpass textures whose IOC is sinusoidally modulated at different correlation frequencies and compared sensitivity to these stimuli to that of analogous stimuli modulated in disparity. We observed that the IOC sensitivity is low pass/band pass and increases with stimulus duration and contrast in a similar way to that of disparity sensitivity. IOC sensitivity is only weakly, though significantly, correlated with disparity sensitivity in the population. It could provide an alternate measure of binocular sensitivity.

We investigated how two co-aligned adjacent stimuli (flankers) influence threshold versus pedestal contrast (TvC) functions in binocular, monocular, and dichoptic presentations. Targets were presented to the two eyes or to only one eye. Pedestals and flankers were presented to the same eye to which the target was presented (binocular or monocular presentations) or to the other eye (dichoptic presentation). In the binocular presentation of targets and pedestals, the binocular flankers lowered thresholds at low pedestal contrasts. The monocular flankers had a similar effect to the binocular flanker, although the threshold reduction was smaller. In the dichoptic presentation of a target and a pedestal, flankers lowered thresholds when flankers were presented to the eye where targets were presented. In contrast, dichoptic flankers elevated thresholds at intermediate pedestal contrasts when a pedestal was also dichoptically presented. We fitted binocular contrast gain control models to the data. It follows from the fitting results that flankers modulate outputs from spatial filters in the monocular processing stage of contrast gain control.

The neural mechanisms underlying the integration and segregation of motion signals are often studied using plaid stimuli. These stimuli consist of two spatially coincident dynamic gratings of differing orientations, which are either perceived to move in two unique directions or are integrated by the visual system to elicit the percept of a checkerboard moving in a single direction. Computations pertaining to the motion of the individual component gratings are thought to take place in striate cortex (V1) whereas motion integration is thought to involve neurons in dorsal stream extrastriate visual areas, particularly V5/MT. By combining a psychophysical task that employed plaid stimuli with 1 Hz offline repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), we demonstrated a double dissociation between striate and extrastriate visual cortex in terms of their contributions to motion integration. rTMS over striate cortex increased coherent motion percepts whereas rTMS over extrastriate cortex had the opposite effect. These effects were robust directly after the stimulation administration and gradually returned to baseline within 15 minutes. This double dissociation is consistent with previous patient data and the recent hypothesis that both coherent and transparent motion percepts are supported by the visual system simultaneously and compete for perceptual dominance. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

We measured contrast thresholds for Gabor targets in the presence of maskers which had higher or lower spatial frequencies than the targets. A high-pass fractal masker elevated target contrast thresholds at low and intermediate pedestal contrasts in both monocular and dichoptic modes of presentation, suggesting that the masking occurs after a monocular processing stage. Moreover we found that a high-pass checkerboard masker elevated thresholds at the low and intermediate pedestal contrasts and that most of this threshold elevation disappeared when the phase of the masker’s spatial components were scrambled. This masking was effective only in the dichoptic presentation, not in the monocular presentation. These results indicate that phase alignment of the high spatial frequency components plays a crucial role for interocular suppression. We speculate that phase alignments signal the existence of a luminance contour in the monocular image and that this signal suppresses processing of information in the other eye when there is no corresponding signal in that eye.

The processing deficit in amblyopia is not restricted to just high spatial frequencies but also involves low‐medium spatial frequency processing, for suprathreshold stimuli with a broad orientational bandwidth. This is the case in all three forms of amblyopia; strabismic, anisometropic, and deprivation. Here we use both a random block design and a phase‐encoded design to ascertain (1) the extent to which fMRI activation is reduced at low‐mid spatial frequencies in different visual areas, (2) how accurately spatial frequency is mapped across the amblyopic cortex. We report a loss of function to suprathreshold low‐medium spatial frequency stimuli that involves more than just area V1, suggesting a diffuse loss in spatial frequency processing in a number of different cortical areas. An analysis of the fidelity of the spatial frequency cortical map reveals that many voxels lose their spatial frequency preference when driven by the amblyopic eye, suggesting a broader tuning for spatial frequency for neurons driven by the amblyopic eye within this low‐mid spatial frequency range. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Amblyopia or lazy eye is the most common cause of uniocular blindness in adults. It is caused by a disruption to normal visual development as a consequence of unmatched inputs from the two eyes in early life, arising from a turned eye (strabismus), unequal refractive error (anisometropia) or form deprivation (e.g. cataract). Animal models based on extracellular recordings in anesthetized animals suggest that the earliest site of the anomaly in the primate visual pathway is the primary visual cortex (corresponding to the striate cortex, cytoarchitectonic area 17 and area V1), which is where inputs from the two eyes are first combined in an excitatory fashion, whereas more distal and monocular processing structures such as the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) are normal. Using high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging in a group of human adults with amblyopia, we demonstrate that functional deficits are first observable at a thalamic level, that of the LGN. Our results suggest the need to re-evaluate the current models of amblyopia that are based on the assumption of a purely cortical dysfunction, as well as the role for the LGN in visual development.

(2009). Point of View: Deleveraging the Commercial Real Estate Market. Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management: Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 299-306.

It is known that local, monocular motion (short-range motion) can produce local distortions of visual space. We wanted to know if local monocular motion was both sufficient and necessary for producing motion-based spatial distortions. We used a previously reported dichoptic motion stimulus in which the directional motion signal is not present in either eye's input but is only present after binocular combination. We show that such a stimulus can also induce perceived changes in spatial position. This suggests that local, monocular motion while being sufficient is not necessary for the production of motion-based illusions. It suggests that one source of motion signals responsible for this illusion is from binocular motion mechanisms.

It has been established that in amblyopia, information from the amblyopic eye (AME) is not combined with that from the fellow fixing eye (FFE) under conditions of binocular viewing. However, recent evidence suggests that mechanisms that combine information between the eyes are intact in amblyopia. The lack of binocular function is most likely due to the imbalanced inputs from the two eyes under binocular conditions [Baker, D. H., Meese, T. S., Mansouri, B., & Hess, R. F. (2007b). Binocular summation of contrast remains intact in strabismic amblyopia. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 48(11), 5332–5338]. We have measured the extent to which the information presented to each eye needs to differ for binocular combination to occur and in doing so we quantify the influence of interocular suppression. We quantify these suppressive effects for suprathreshold processing of global stimuli for both motion and spatial tasks. The results confirm the general importance of these suppressive effects in rendering the structurally binocular visual system of a strabismic amblyope, functionally monocular.

The mechanism by which flanking Gabors facilitate the detection of a central test Gabor is not well understood. Since a knowledge of the dynamics of this effect will help constrain the class of possible model, we conducted three different but interrelated experiments designed to assess different aspects of the dynamics associated with this facilitation. In experiment 1, collinear facilitation was measured at different onset times of a test target for flanks whose contrast was sinusoidally-modulated at 1Hz. In experiment 2, the order between test target and flanks was investigated by varying the SOA, both stimuli being presented for 50ms. Experiment 3 assessed temporal summation with and without the flanks. The results obtained do not support either a single channel masking explanation which predicts transient dynamics or an explanation-based solely on the conduction of facilitatory impulses from flanks to target via long-range horizontal connections which predicts transient but delayed dynamics. The results suggest that the dynamics of facilitation are fast but sustained. We propose two underlying mechanisms, a rapid signal to initiate facilitation across large retinal distances, based on feedback from higher centers and a sustained facilitative response based on the temporal integration of locally-responsive, lower-level mechanisms.

The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is the primary thalamic nucleus that relays visual information from the retina to the primary visual cortex (V1) and has been extensively studied in non-human primates. A key feature of the LGN is the segregation of retinal inputs into different cellular layers characterized by their differential responses to red-green (RG) color (L ⁄M opponent), blue-yellow (BY) color (S-cone opponent) and achromatic (Ach) contrast. In this study we use high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging (4 tesla, 3.6 · 3.6 · 3m m 3 ) to record simultaneously the responses of the human LGN and V1 to chromatic and Ach contrast to investigate the LGN responses to color, and how these are modified as information transfers between LGN and cortex. We find that the LGN has a robust response to RG color contrast, equal to or greater than the Ach response, but a significantly poorer sensitivity to BY contrast. In V1 at low temporal rates (2 Hz), however, the sensitivity of the BY color pathway is selectively enhanced, rising in relation to the RG and Ach responses. We find that this effect generalizes across different stimulus contrasts and spatial stimuli (1-d and 2-d patterns), but is selective for temporal frequency, as it is not found for stimuli at 8 Hz. While the mechanism of this cortical enhancement of BY color vision and its dynamic component is unknown, its role may be to compensate for a weak BY signal originating from the sparse distribution of neurons in the retina and LGN.

SummaryAmblyopia is a cortically based visual disorder caused by disruption of vision during a critical early developmental period. It is often thought to be a largely intractable problem in adult patients because of a lack of neuronal plasticity after this critical period [1]; however, recent advances have suggested that plasticity is still present in the adult amblyopic visual cortex [2–6]. Here, we present data showing that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the visual cortex can temporarily improve contrast sensitivity in the amblyopic visual cortex. The results indicate continued plasticity of the amblyopic visual system in adulthood and open the way for a potential new therapeutic approach to the treatment of amblyopia.

There are currently two competing dichotomies used to describe how local stereoscopic information is processed by the human visual system. The first is in terms of the type of the spatial filtering operations used to extract relevant image features prior to stereoscopic analysis (i.e. 1st- vs 2nd-order stereo; [Hess, R. F., & Wilcox, L. M. (1994). Linear and non-linear filtering in stereopsis. Vision Research, 34, 2431–2438]). The second is in terms of the temporal properties of the mechanisms used to process stereoscopic information (i.e. sustained vs transient stereo; [Schor, C. M., Edwards, M., & Pope, D. R. (1998). Spatial-frequency and contrast tuning of the transient-stereopsis system. Vision Research, 38(20), 3057–3068]). Here we compare the dynamics of 1st- and 2nd-order stereopsis using several types of stimuli and find a clear dissociation in which 1st-order stimuli exhibit sustained properties while 2nd-order patterns show more transient properties. Our results and analyses unify and simplify two complimentary bodies of work.

Here we describe a projection system based on the combination of linear polarizing filters, designed to allow dichoptic presentation of visual stimuli during fMRI experiments. Currently available MRI compatible dichoptic presentation systems are either highly expensive, require degradation of the projected stimulus such as the removal of all but one color or are difficult to deploy in a range of scanner environments. The system described here is relatively low in cost, requires no change in stimulus properties and could be used in many types of scanner facilities. We provide a verification of the system demonstrating minimal cross-talk between the images presented to the two eyes.

The detectability of a Gabor patch is improved by the presence of collinear flanking Gabors, this phenomenon is termed collinear facilitation. In experiment 1, we investigate the effects of adding 2D spatial luminance noise as a means of investigating different transects through the suprathreshold contrast space to see whether facilitation is ubiquitous throughout the contrast domain or whether it is confined to absolute contrast threshold. The results show that adding luminance noise abolishes the facilitation, showing it is confined to absolute threshold. In experiment 2, we assess whether 2nd order stimuli exhibit collinear facilitation and whether 1st order flanks can induce facilitation in 2nd order stimuli and vice versa. Our results suggest that collinear facilitation, albeit weaker, does occur for some 2nd order stimuli but we did not find any 1st/2nd order interactions, suggesting separate 1st/2nd order cortical processing streams, at least at the level at which this phenomenon occurs. Our two main findings, namely the lack of facilitation at suprathreshold contrasts and its presence for 2nd order processing argue against it playing a pivotal role in contour integration which does occur at all contrasts but not for these 2nd order stimuli.

Optic flow-large-field rotational and radial motion-is processed as efficiently as translational motion for first-order (luminance-defined) stimuli. However, it has been suggested recently that the same pattern does not hold for second-order (e.g. contrast-defined) stimuli. We used random dot kinematogram (RDK) stimuli to determine whether global processing of optic flow is as efficient as processing of global translational motion for both first- and second-order stimuli. For first-order stimuli, we found that coherence thresholds for radial and rotational motion were equivalent to thresholds for translational motion, supporting previous findings. For second-order stimuli we found, firstly, that given sufficient contrast, second-order optic flow can be processed as efficiently as first-order optic flow and, secondly, that rotational and translational second-order motion are processed with equal efficiency. This contradicts the suggestion that there is a loss of efficiency between integration of second-order global motion and second-order optic flow. The third interesting finding was that the processing of radial second-order motion appears to suffer from a deficit that is dependent upon both the contrast and spatial extent of the stimulus. Further experiments discounted the possibility that the observed deficit is caused by a centrifugal or centripetal bias, but demonstrated that a longer temporal integration period for radial second-order motion is responsible for the observed difference. For durations of approximately 850ms, all three types of motion are processed with equal efficiency.

This study investigates four key issues concerning the binocular properties of the mechanisms that encode global motion in human vision: (1) the extent of any binocular advantage; (2) the possible site of this binocular summation; (3) whether or not purely monocular inputs exist for global motion perception; (4) the extent of any dichoptic interaction. Global motion coherence thresholds were measured using random-dot-kinematograms as a function of the dot modulation depth (contrast) for translational, radial and circular flow fields. We found a marked binocular advantage of approximately 1.7, comparable for all three types of motion and the performance benefit was due to a contrast rather than a global motion enhancement. In addition, we found no evidence for any purely monocular influences on global motion detection. The results suggest that the site of binocular combination for global motion perception occurs prior to the extra-striate cortex where motion integration occurs. All cells involved are binocular and exhibit dichoptic interactions, suggesting the existence of a neural mechanism that involves more than just simple summation of the two monocular inputs.

It is current dogma that neurons in primary visual cortex extract local edges from the scene, from which later visual areas reconstruct more meaningful shapes. In intermediate areas, such as area V4, responses are driven by features more complex than local oriented edges but more basic than meaningful shapes. The present study was motivated by the proposal that concentric (circular) shape processing is an important aspect of intermediate shape processing and is proposed to occur in area V4. However, previous studies are not able to discriminate between the number of orientations within the image nor how these orientations vary across space (orientation gradient, contrast or curvature) as opposed to concentric shape processing per se. We address the question whether V4 responses are driven by curvature or circularity. We use fMRI and tightly controlled narrowband stimuli with identical local and global properties. These patterns either form random or circular patterns with tightly matched orientation gradients and therefore similar curvature. We find stronger responses to circular patterns in areas V3/VP and V4. Our results suggest that extracting circular shape is an important step in intermediate shape processing.

Studies of spatial summation often use sinusoidal gratings with blurred edges. When the envelope is elongated (i) along the grating stripes and (ii) at right angles to the grating stripes, we refer to the stimuli as skunk-tails and tiger-tails respectively. Previous work [ Polat & Tyler, 1999 ; Vision Research , 39 , 887–895.] has found that sensitivity to skunk-tails is greater than for tiger-tails, but there have been several failures to replicate this result within a subset of the conditions. To address this we measured detection thresholds for skunk-tails, tiger-tails and squares of grating with sides matched to the lengths of the tails. For foveal viewing, we found a contrast sensitivity advantage in the order of 2 dB for skunk-tails over tiger-tails, but only for horizontal gratings. For vertical gratings, sensitivity was very similar for both tail-types. When the stimuli were presented parafoveally (upper right visual field), a small advantage was found for skunk-tails over tiger-tails at both orientations, and spatial summation slopes were close to that of the ideal observer. We did not replicate the findings of Polat & Tyler, but our results are consistent with (i) those of Foley et al. [Foley, J. M., Varadharajan, S., Koh, C. C., & Farias, C. Q. (2007) Vision Research, 47 , 85–107.] who used only vertical gratings and (ii) those from modelfest, where only horizontal gratings were used. The small effect of tail-type here suggests an anisotropy in the underlying physiology.

To delineate the fidelity of the functional cortical organization in humans with amblyopia, we undertook an investigation into how spatial information is mapped across the visual cortex in amblyopic observers. We assessed whether the boundaries of the visual areas controlled by the amblyopic and fellow fixing eye are in the same position, the fidelity of the retinotopic map within different cortical areas and the average receptive field size in different visual areas. The functional organization of the visual cortex was reconstructed using a fMRI phase-encoded retinotopic mapping analysis. This method sequentially stimulates each point in the visual field along the axes of a polar-coordinate system, thereby reconstructing the representation of the visual field on the cortex. We found that the cortical areas were very similar in normals and amblyopes, with only small differences in boundary positions of different visual areas between fixing and fellow amblyopic eye activation. Within these corresponding visual areas, we did find anomalies in retinotopy in some but not all amblyopes that were not simply a consequence of the poorer functional responses and affected central and peripheral field regions. Only a small increase in the average (or collective) receptive field size was found for full-field representation in amblyopes and none at all for central field representation. The former may simply be a consequence of the poorer functional responses.

Animals with front facing eyes benefit from a substantial overlap in the visual fields of each eye, and devote specialized brain processes to using the horizontal spatial disparities produced as a result of viewing the same object with two laterally placed eyes, to derived depth or 3-D stereo information. This provides the advantage to break the camouflage of objects in front of similarly textured background and improves hand eye coordination for grasping objects close at hand. It is widely thought that about 5% of the population have a lazy eye and lack stereo vision, so it is often supposed that most of the population (95%) have good stereo abilities. We show that this is not the case; 68% have good to excellent stereo (the haves) and 32% have moderate to poor stereo (the have-nots). Why so many people lack good 3-D stereo vision is unclear but it is likely to be neural and reversible.

Purpose: Several recent studies have demonstrated that following short-term monocular deprivation in normal adults, the patched eye, rather than the unpatched eye, becomes stronger in subsequent binocular viewing. However, little is known about the site and nature of the underlying processes. In this study, we examine the underlying mechanisms by measuring steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) as an index of the neural contrast response in early visual areas. Methods: The experiment consisted of three consecutive stages: a pre-patching EEG recording (14 minutes), a monocular patching stage (2.5 hours) and a post-patching EEG recording (14 minutes; started immediately after the removal of the patch). During the patching stage, a diffuser (transmits light but not pattern) was placed in front of one randomly selected eye. During the EEG recording stage, contrast response functions for each eye were measured. Results: The neural responses from the patched eye increased after the removal of the patch, whilst the responses from the unpatched eye remained the same. Such phenomena occurred under both monocular and dichoptic viewing conditions. Conclusions: We interpret this eye dominance plasticity in adult human visual cortex as homeostatic intrinsic plasticity regulated by an increase of contrast-gain in the patched eye.

Purpose. Visual deficits in amblyopia are neural in origin, yet are difficult to characterize with functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI). Our aim was to develop an objective electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm that can be used to provide a clinically useful index of amblyopic deficits. Methods. We used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to measure full contrast response functions in both amblyopic (n = 10, strabismic or mixed amblyopia, mean age: 44 years) and control (n = 5, mean age: 31 years) observers, both with and without a dichoptic mask. Results. At the highest target contrast, the ratio of amplitudes across the weaker and stronger eyes was highly correlated (r = 0.76) with the acuity ratio between the eyes. We also found that the contrast response function in the amblyopic eye had both a greatly reduced amplitude and a shallower slope, but that surprisingly dichoptic masking was weaker than in controls. The results were compared with the predictions of a computational model of amblyopia and suggest a modification to the model whereby excitatory (but not suppressive) signals are attenuated in the amblyopic eye. Conclusions. We suggest that SSVEPs offer a sensitive and objective measure of the ocular imbalance in amblyopia and could be used to assess the efficacy of amblyopia therapies currently under development.

Some studies have reported deficits in amblyopia for global form and motion integration, whereas other studies have shown global integration of form and motion information to be normal in amblyopia. Here, we attempt to resolve this discrepancy by showing that amblyopes only exhibit selective performance deficits on global tasks that contain noise as well as signal. We hypothesized that signal integration is normal, but noise segregation is not. We used comparable global orientation and motion direction discrimination tasks to measure integration performance in the presence of controlled amounts of pedestal noise (i.e., elements whose orientations or directions were randomly selected). We modelled the performance using an equivalent noise model, which has the parameters of internal noise and number of samples. Our results show that amblyopic eyes can integrate form (i.e., orientation) and motion information (i.e., motion direction) similarly to normals when all the information is signal (i.e., no pedestal noise). However, introducing pedestal noise perturbs the performance of the amblyopic eyes significantly more than that of the normal eyes.

Previously, we have shown that humans with amblyopia exhibit deficits for global motion discrimination that cannot be simply ascribed to a reduction in visibility or contrast sensitivity. Deficits exist in the processing of global motion in the fronto-parallel plane that suggest reduced extra-striate function (i.e., MT) in amblyopia. Here, we ask whether such a deficit also exists for rotation and radial components of optic flow that are first processed at higher sites along the dorsal pathway (i.e., MSTd). We show that similar motion processing deficits occur in our amblyopic group as a whole for translation, rotation, and radial components of optic flow and that none of these can be solely accounted for by the reduced visibility of the stimuli. Furthermore, on a subject-by-subject basis there is no significant correlation between the motion deficits for radial and rotational motion and those for translation, consistent with independent deficits in dorsal pathway function up to and including MSTd.

It is current dogma that neurons in primary visual cortex extract local edges from the scene from which later visual areas reconstruct more meaningful shapes. Recent neuroimaging studies, however, have shown V1 modulations by the degree of structure in the image (shape). These V1 modulations due to the level of shape coherence have been explained in one of two possible ways: due to changes in image statistics or shape-based perceptual influences from higher visual areas. Here we compare both hypotheses using stimuli composed of Gabor arrays constructed to form circular shapes that can be successively degraded by manipulating the orientations of individual Gabors while maintaining local and global statistics. In a first experiment, we confirm that V1 responses are inversely correlated with the degree of structure in the image. In a second experiment, stimulus predictions are compared based on the degree of circular shape or change in the image statistic varied (orientation variance) in the image. We find that these V1 modulations to shape change are correlated with low-level changes in orientation contrast rather than shape perception per se.

We evaluated the proposal that there exist detectors of the following four cardinal phases in human vision: +cosine, −cosine, +sine, and −sine. First, we assessed whether there was evidence that these cardinal phases were processed by independent ‘labeled lines,’ using a discrimination at detection threshold paradigm. Second, we assessed whether suprathreshold phase discrimination was best at phases intermediate between these cardinal values. Third, we tried to replicate previous evidence showing that an absence of facilitation occurs only between cosine pedestals and sine tests (or vice-versa). In all three experimental approaches we found no compelling evidence for four cardinal phase groupings. We did however find evidence for independent detectors for pure increments and decrements (±cosine). We suggest that phase discrimination, whether at threshold or suprathreshold, is mediated by mechanisms that encode the relative positions and contrasts of local increments and decrements within the stimulus.

SummaryThe growth of the eye, unlike other parts of the body, is not ballistic. It is guided by visual feedback with the eventual aim being optimal focus of the retinal image or emmetropization [1]. It has been shown in animal models that interference with the quality of the retinal image leads to a disruption to the normal growth pattern, resulting in the development of refractive errors and defocused retinal images [1, 2]. While it is clear that retinal images rich in pattern information are needed to control eye growth, it is unclear what particular aspect of image structure is relevant. Retinal images comprise a range of spatial frequencies at different absolute and relative contrasts and in different degrees of spatial alignment. Here we show, by using synthetic images, that it is not the local edge structure produced by relative spatial frequency alignments within an image but rather the spatial frequency composition per se that is used to regulate the growth of the eye. Furthermore, it is the absolute energy at high spatial frequencies regardless of the spectral slope that is most effective. Neither result would be expected from currently accepted ideas of how human observers judge the degree of image “blur” in a scene where both phase alignments [3] and the relative energy distribution across spatial frequency [4] (i.e., spectral slope) are important.

Using fractal noise images, we measured the dependence of Dmin on the spatial passband (spatial frequency and orientation) over which information was correlated either between the eyes for stereo or between sequential frames for motion. Without affecting the amplitude spectrum of the noise stimulus we used idealized filters to scramble the phase of components outside a pre-defined passband. Using a simple Gaussian model in which performance depends on the signal/noise within a restricted spatial region, we obtained estimates of the bandwidth of the narrowest underlying spatial frequency and orientation spectral region subserving these two comparable tasks. Spatial bandwidths varied with peak spatial frequency but were very broad approximating the spectrum of the stimulus itself. Orientation properties of the underlying mechanisms were isotropic. These results suggest that the independent activity of individual narrowband spatial channels is not perceptually accessible for these tasks.

Emmetropization is dependent on visual feedback and presumably some measure of the optical and image quality of the eye. We investigated the effect of simple alterations to image contrast on eye growth and refractive development. A 1.6 cyc/deg square-wave-grating target was located at the end of a 3.3 cm cone, imaged by a +30 D lens and applied monocularly to the eyes of 8-day-old chicks. Eleven different contrast targets were tested: 95, 67, 47.5, 33.5, 24, 17, 12, 8.5, 4.2, 2.1, and 0%. Refractive error (RE), vitreous chamber depth (VC) and axial length (AL) varied with the contrast of the image (RE diff: F(10,86)=12.420, p

The human visual system can undertake a specialized form of motion integration, one that enables the presence of extended spatial contours to be disambiguated from their backgrounds. We have shown previously that the visual system can selectively integrate local motion signals when their directions are along spatial contours and its efficiency is inversely related to the curvature of the contour involved (Ledgeway, T., & Hess, R. F. (2002). Vision Research, 42, 653–659). This integration primarily involves the direction, rather than the speed, of local motion signals. In the present study, we sought to investigate both the spatial frequency and orientation tuning of this specialized contour integration process, using a path detection paradigm. The results show that the tuning for spatial frequency is very broad, in line with previous studies that have examined this issue. In contrast, the orientation selectivity of the mechanism mediating contour extraction under these conditions is relatively narrowband. Thus, spatial frequency but not orientation pooling appears to take place prior to the extraction of motion-defined contours, a situation that is different from that previously shown for spatial contours composed of static, oriented elements.

Over the last decade or so a great deal of psychophysical research has attempted to delineate the principles by which local orientations and motions are combined across space to facilitate the detection of simple spatial contours. This has led to the development of “association field” models of contour detection which suggest that the strength of linking between neighbouring elements in an image, is determined by the degree to which they aligned along smooth (first-order) curves. To test this assumption we used a path detection paradigm to compare the ability of observers to identify the presence of contours defined by either spatial orientation, motion direction or by specific combinations of both types of visual attribute. The relative alignment of the local orientations and/or directions with respect to the axis of the depicted contour was systematically varied. For orientation-defined contours detection was best when the elements were aligned along (parallel with) the contour axis, approached chance levels for obliquely oriented elements and then improved for elements that were orthogonal to the contour axis (i.e., performance was a U-shaped function of degree of orientation misalignment). This pattern of results was found for both straight and curved contours and is not readily explicable in terms of current association field theories. For motion-defined contours, however, performance simply deteriorated as the relative directions of the constituent path elements were progressively misaligned with respect to the contour. Thus the rules by which local orientations are linked to define spatial contours are qualitatively different from those used for linking local directions and each may be mediated by distinct visual mechanisms. When both orientation and motion cues were simultaneously available, contour detection performance was generally enhanced, in a manner that is consistent with probability summation. We suggest that association field models of orientation linking may need to be extended in light of the present findings.

Identification of the neural basis of the visual deficits experienced by humans with amblyopia, particularly when associated with strabismus (strabismic amblyopia), has proved to be difficult in part because of the inability to observe directly the neural changes at various levels of the human visual pathway. Much of our knowledge has necessarily been obtained on the basis of sophisticated psychophysical studies as well as from electrophysiological explorations on the visual pathways in animal models of amblyopia. This study combines these two approaches to the problem by employing similar psychophysical probes of performance on animal models of two forms of amblyopia (deprivation and strabismic) to those employed earlier on human amblyopes (Hess & Field, 1994, Vis. Res., 34, 13397-13406). The tests explore two competing explanations for the visual deficits, namely an evenly distributed loss of neural connections (undersampling) with the amblyopic eye as opposed to disordered connections with this eye (neural disarray). Unexpectedly, the results in animal models of deprivation amblyopia were not in accord with expectations based upon an even distribution of lost connections with the amblyopic eye. However, the results were similar to those observed in a strabismic amblyopic animal and to strabismic amblyopic humans. We suggest that deprivation amblyopia may be accompanied by an uneven loss of connections that results in effective neural disarray. By contrast, amblyopia associated with strabismus might arise from neural disarray of a different origin such as an alteration of intrinsic cortical connections.

Contour integration plays an important role in linking local elements into global shape and the binding strength among local elements depends on both orientation and position features. The very high sensitivity reported for detecting the sinusoidal deformation of circular contours may result from the presence and concordance of both orientation and position cues to shape difference. In this study, position and orientation-defined micropatch-sampled radial frequency (MSRF) patterns were employed, which permit the independent assessment of the contributions of local orientation and position features to shape integration. It was demonstrated that, while both local orientation and position features can encode shape deformation, the human visual system is more sensitive to orientation-defined shape difference than to position-defined shape difference. Furthermore, integration of the local orientation feature into shape is more than two times stronger than that of local position, and may involve a global pooling mechanism. Nevertheless, optimal shape discrimination performance requires the analysis of both local orientation and position features.

Do amblyopes demonstrate general irregularities in processes of global image integration? Or are these anomalies stimulus specific? To address these questions we employed directly analogous global-orientation and global-motion stimuli using a method that allows us to factor out any influence of the low-level visibility loss [Simmers, A. J., Ledgeway, T., Hess, R. F., & McGraw, P. V. (2003). Deficits to global motion processing in human amblyopia. Vision Research 43, pp. 729–738]. The combination of orientation and motion coherence thresholds reported here provides comparable psychophysical measures of global processing by spatial-sensitive and motion-sensitive mechanisms in the amblyopic visual system. The results show deficits in both global-orientation and global-motion processing in amblyopia, which appear independent of any low-level visibility loss, but with the most severe deficit affecting the extraction of global motion. This provides evidence for the existence of a dominant temporal processing deficit in amblyopia.

Executive Summary. Articulating a regional investment strategy poses challenges for real estate portfolio managers. This paper offers a way of collapsing the many US metros into eight clusters, tak...

Distinct mechanisms underlying the visual perception of luminance- (first-order) and contrast-defined (second-order) motion have been proposed from electrophysiological, human psychophysical and neurological studies; however a cortical specialization for these mechanisms has proven elusive. Here human brain imaging combined with psychophysical methods was used to assess cortical specializations for processing these two kinds of motion. A common stimulus construction was employed, controlling for differences in spatial and temporal properties, psychophysical performance and attention. Distinct cortical regions have been found preferentially processing either first- or second-order motion, both in occipital and parietal lobes, producing the first physiological evidence in humans to support evidence from psychophysical studies, brain lesion sites and computational models. These results provide evidence for the idea that first-order motion is computed in V1 and second-order motion in later occipital visual areas, and additionally suggest a functional dissociation between these two kinds of motion beyond the occipital lobe.

Using fractal noise images, we measured the dependence of Dmin and Dmax for stereo on the interocular differences of spatial frequency and contrast. Dmin exhibits a strong dependence on the highest spatial frequency contained in the image, while Dmax exhibits a weaker dependence on the lowest spatial frequency contained within the image. Neither relationship was found to be different when the filtering was restricted to only one eye’s image, although the effect of differential lowpass filtering for Dmin was greater than that of binocular lowpass filtering. Contrast is thought to affect stereo performance particularly when it is reduced in only one eye’s image. We show that, at least for broadband fractal images representative of everyday natural images, interocular contrast differences are no more disruptive than binocular ones. These results bear upon the nature of the matching process in stereopsis. The fact that these interocular spatial frequency and contrast manipulations do not selectively degrade stereopsis beyond that expected from a consideration of purely monocular effects is consistent with matching occurring within multiple spatial channels prior to their combination.

On the basis of the contrast sensitivity loss in amblyopia which mainly affects higher spatial frequencies, one would expect amblyopes to perceive sharp edges as blurred. We show that they perceive sharp edges as sharp and have veridical edge blur perception. Contrary to the currently accepted view, this suggests that the amblyopic visual system is not characterized by a blurred visual representation.

Executive Summary. This study explores some of the less cyclical characteristics of the office investment market. Offices comprise more than one-third of investable commercial real estate by value among the major property types. Private institutional investors allocate about this proportion of offices to their real estate portfolios, but REITs own a somewhat lower proportion by value. The findings indicate that institutional investors have a strong preference for large and/or rapidly growing markets, some preference for newer properties and no discernible investment preferences between CBD and suburban offices. The findings also indicate that office tenancy varies widely across industries, leases run five to ten years and that the average tenant is small.

We studied lateral neural interactions in strabismic (n=6) and anisometropic amblyopes (n=3) by measuring reductions in the perceived contrast of a foveally viewed Gabor centred in a horizontal array of closely neighboring Gabors. Strabismic amblyopes, but not anisometropic amblyopes, failed to show the reduction in perceived contrast typical of normal vision [J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 15 (1998) 1733] when lateral contrast information is available at the same orientation and spatial frequency. The strabismic amblyopes also severely misperceive the regularity of the array of Gabors flanking the test stimulus. A normal eye could model the anomalous contrast perception of the amblyopic eye, by adding an equivalent amount of spatial distortion to the stimulus. The relationship between the observed anomalies for local contrast gain control and positional sensitivity is discussed.

Studies of human perception of time-varying luminance often aim to estimate either temporal impulse response shapes or temporal modulation transfer functions (MTFs) of putative temporal processing mechanisms. Previously, temporal masking data have been used to estimate the properties and numbers of these temporal mechanisms in central vision for 1 cycle per degree (cpd) targets [Fredericksen and Hess (1998)]. The same methods have been used to explore how these properties change with stimulus energy [Fredericksen and Hess (1997)] and spatial frequency [Fredericksen and Hess (1999)]. We present here analyses of the properties of temporal mechanisms that detect temporal variations of luminance in peripheral vision. The results indicate that a two-filter model provides the best model for our masking data, but that no multiple filter model provides an acceptable fit across the range of parameters varied in this study. Single-filter modelling shows differences between processing mechanisms at 1 cpd in central vision and those that operate eccentrically. We find evidence that this change is because of differences in relative sensitivities of the mechanisms, and to differences in fundamental mechanism impulse responses.

We know something about the fidelity with which motion can be detected in local regions of the visual field but nothing about how these local motion signals are combined across space to define contours. To investigate such linking rules, we measured the detectability of motion-defined contours using an adaptation of the paradigm of Field, Hayes, and Hess (Vision Research, 33 (1993) 173) in which subjects are asked to detect the presence of simple contours defined solely by local motion direction that are embedded in a field of otherwise random local motions. We show that contours defined by motion whose direction is along the contour are more detectable than contours defined by motions of any common direction. Furthermore, the contour configuration is important in that straight and moderately curved contours, though not highly curved ones, can support this specialized form of motion integration.

Using filtered, broad band, fractal noise images we measured the dependence of Dmin and Dmax for stereo on luminance spatial frequency. Dmin was found to exhibit a simple dependence on the highest spatial frequency contained in the stimulus. Dmax depended on both image size and spatial frequency in a way that suggests an informational limit. Different rules govern Dmin and Dmax even for first order stereopsis, arguing against a common neural explanation based on independent access to the most pertinent spatial filter. 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.