Composite adaptation and spatial frequency interactions

Global precedence, spatial frequency channels, and the statistics of natural images

A great deal of evidence suggests that early in processing, retinal images are filtered by parallel, spatial frequency selective channels. We attempt to incorporate this view of early vision with the principle of global precedence, which holds that Gestalt-like processes sensitive to global image configurations tend to dominate local feature processing in human pattern perception. Global precedence is inferred from the pattern of reaction times observed when visual patterns contain multiple cues at different levels of spatial scale. Specifically, it is frequently observed that global processing times are largely unaffected by conflicting local cues, but local processing times are substantially lengthened by conflicting global cues. The asymmetry of these effects suggests the dominant role of global configurations. Since global spatial information is effectively represented by low spatial frequencies, global precedence potentially implies a low frequency dominance. The thesis is that low spatial frequencies tend to be available before information carried by higher frequency bands, producing a coarse-to-fine temporal order in visual spatial perception. It is suggested that a variety of factors contribute to the "prior entry" of low frequency information, including the high contrast gain of the magnocellular pathway, the amplitude spectra typical of natural images, and inhibitory interactions between the parallel frequency-tuned channels. Evidence suggesting a close relationship between global precedence and spatial frequency channels is provided by observations that the essential features of the global precedence effect are obtained using patterns consisting of low and high frequency sinusoids. The hypothesis that these asymmetric interference effects are due to interactions between parallel spatial channels is supported by an analysis of reaction times (RTs), which shows that RTs to redundant low and high frequency cues produce less facilitation than predictions that assume the channels are independent. In view of previous work showing that global precedence depends upon the low frequency content of the stimuli, we suggest that low spatial frequencies represent the sine qua non for the dominance of configurational cues in human pattern perception, and that this configurational dominance reflects the microgenesis of visual pattern perception. This general view of the temporal dynamics of visual pattern recognition is discussed, is considered from an evolutionary perspective, and is related to certain statistical regularities in natural scenes. Potential adaptive advantages of an interactive parallel architecture that confers an initial processing advantage to low resolution information are explored.

The influence of surround suppression on adaptation effects in primary visual cortex

Adaptation, the prolonged presentation of stimuli, has been used to probe mechanisms of visual processing in physiological, imaging, and perceptual studies. Previous neurophysiological studies have measured adaptation effects by using stimuli tailored to evoke robust responses in individual neurons. This approach provides an incomplete view of how an adapter alters the representation of sensory stimuli by a population of neurons with diverse functional properties. We implanted microelectrode arrays in primary visual cortex (V1) of macaque monkeys and measured orientation tuning and contrast sensitivity in populations of neurons before and after prolonged adaptation. Whereas previous studies in V1 have reported that adaptation causes stimulus-specific suppression of responsivity and repulsive shifts in tuning preference, we have found that adaptation can also lead to response facilitation and shifts in tuning toward the adapter. To explain this range of effects, we have proposed and tested a simple model that employs stimulus-specific suppression in both the receptive field and the spatial surround. The predicted effects on tuning depend on the relative drive provided by the adapter to these two receptive field components. Our data reveal that adaptation can have a much richer repertoire of effects on neuronal responsivity and tuning than previously considered and suggest an intimate mechanistic relationship between spatial and temporal contextual effects.

Paradigm shifts: new techniques to answer new questions

The advent of a multiple-channels approach to spatial vision 20 years ago raised important questions that were difficult to approach empirically, given the technology and analytic tools of the time. These questions concerned the interaction or combination of different components of a stimulus--questions that have recently resurfaced in more complex form. Classical psychophysical methods for assessing whether two stimulus aspects are coded independently (e.g., masking, adaptation, and cue-summation) provide only limited information about the nature of whatever interactions are discovered. In both older work in detection and recent work in complex pattern discrimination, we have used a double-judgment paradigm in which the observer rates two aspects of a stimulus simultaneously. The paradigm provides a rich source of information about the codes underlying each psychophysical decision and which are unique in permitting us to psychophysically investigate effects resulting from neural noise in the system. Our analyses draw on theories of dimensional interaction in signal detection theory and in information theory, and on methods from several branches of statistics, including categorical data analysis and structural equation modeling. We review the theoretical, technological, methodological, and personal influences that led us to develop this approach.

Adaptability of the visual system is inversely related to its sensitivity

Prolonged viewing of a high-contrast pattern (the adapter) makes similar patterns harder to detect. This threshold-elevation effect was measured as a function of the contrast of the adapter, with use of sinusoidal grating patterns. Increases in the spatial frequency, temporal frequency, or eccentricity of the stimuli had two major consequences. First, the minimum contrast required for detection of the pattern rose; and second, the function that related threshold elevation to adapting contrast became steeper. It is suggested that this increase in the slope of the function reflects the increased gain of these mechanisms, which might occur as compensation for their relatively poor sensitivity. Changing the subject's ability to detect the adapting pattern by means of masks of an orthogonal orientation had markedly different effects on the threshold-elevation-versus-adapting-contrast function. Under these conditions the slope was decreased. The results support the idea that the human visual system tries to compensate for differences in sensitivity by having different gains be associated with different mechanisms.

Interactions among spatial frequency and orientation channels adapted concurrently

Interactions between size and orientation-specific mechanisms in the human visual system were investigated using a sequential adaptation technique. Subjects adapted to a vertical, 4 c/deg high-contrast (0.7) sinewave grating that was interleaved at a rate of 0.5 Hz with another adapting grating differing either in (1) spatial frequency or (2) orientation. Before and after adaptation contrast thresholds were measured for a vertical 4 c/deg sinewave test grating. The resultant elevation in contrast threshold was plotted as a function of the (1) spatial frequency or (2) orientation differences between the first and second adapting gratings. Maximum threshold elevation was found when both adapting gratings shared the same spatial frequency and orientation. Minimum elevations were found when the second grating's spatial frequency or orientation differed by approx. 1.5 octaves or 45 deg, respectively. Beyond these values threshold elevations reapproached the baseline value measured in a control condition, where the 4.0 c/deg adapting grating was interleaved with a blank. The minimum threshold elevations were 0.2-0.3 log units below the baseline level. The results suggest the existence of inhibitory interactions between neural mechanisms tuned to the size and orientation of retinal images.

Spatial frequency interference on grating-induction

Spatial frequency interference and facilitation in suprathreshold vision were studied using the grating-induction effect [McCourt, Vision Res. 22, 119-134 (1982)] as a sensitive probe. The effects on grating-induction magnitude produced by variations in "interfering" and "inducing" grating spatial frequency, contrast and phase were examined in four experiments. A limited range of high spatial frequency interfering gratings reduced the contrast of gratings induced by spatially coextensive lower frequency inducing gratings. Both phase-dependent and phase-independent interference was observed. Facilitation of grating-induction was produced by interfering gratings of lower frequency than the inducing grating. It is hypothesized that the grating-induction interference effect is due to inhibition of the low spatial frequency selective mechanisms responsible for induction, by channels tuned to higher frequencies. The functional significance of induction and spatial frequency inhibition is discussed, and a mathematical description of the results is presented.

Simultaneous masking between two sinusoidal gratings measured in terms of temporal sensitivity

Effects of high-contrast simultaneous masking gratings on the temporal sensitivity of signal gratings were measured as a function of masking spatial frequency, where temporal sensitivity was defined as the reciprocal of the minimum exposure duration required for a signal to be detected. The sensitivity of signal gratings was shown to be facilitated when signal frequencies and masking frequencies were separated by more than about 2 octaves but inhibited when the two frequencies were not separated this much. The results were quantitatively different from the results obtained in terms of contrast sensitivity. Psychometric functions on grating detection were shown to become steeper when the temporal sensitivity was enhanced and less steep when it was decreased.

Binocular rivalry: suppression depends on orientation and spatial frequency

In binocular rivalry the time during which different stimuli are perceived depends--amongst other things--on their spatial frequency (sf) contents, on contrast and on orientation. Limiting the sf-range of both periodic and aperiodic stimuli in different ways (while keeping the contrast constant) decreased their predominance. This result seems to corroborate the concept of spatial frequency channels in human vision. Decreasing the contrast also decreased predominance. Thus blurred patterns are suppressed by sharply focused ones because of both their lower contrast and their loss of high sf's. This has consequences for the therapy of strabismic amblyopia. Obliquely oriented patterns were almost as dominant as vertical ones and much more than horizontal ones. Instead of a conventional "oblique-effect" we found a "vertical-effect".

Adapting to two orientations: disinhibition in a visual aftereffect

The tilt aftereffect of adapating to two different orientations simultaneously is weaker than the aftereffect of adapting to the more effective of the two orientations alone. This finding is consistent with explanations of orientational after-effects in terms of lateral inhibition between cortical orientation detectors, but not with explanations in terms of neural "fatigue" from excitation.

Spatial frequency specific interaction of dot patterns and gratings

Adaptation to patterns of paired random dots produces loss of contrast sensitivity to sinusoidal luminance gratings oriented perpendicularly to the dot-pair direction. This adaptation loss is spatial frequency- and orientation-specific and varies with dot-pair separation in a manner predictable from the Fourier spectra of the stimuli and observed characteristics of the visual system. These results support the idea that the visual system acts as a periodicity analyzer with known restrictions and cannot be accounted for by a feature-detector model. When the bars of the test gratings are aligned in the dot-pair direction, there is no adaptational loss at any frequency despite the fact that the adaptation pattern contains significant spectral power at all frequencies in this orientation. This lack of adaptation may be due to inhibitory interactions among channels or to nonlinear effects within local receptive fields.

Visual texture discrimination using random-dot patterns

A method for generating random-dot textures is described that provides statistical control of any n adjacent points (n-grams), while leaving constant the statistics of shorter spans. The method thus allows the experimenter to isolate statistics of n-grams of any span length to determine the nature of their influence on texture discrimination. Variables that control phase are relatively unimportant. The most significant variables are constraints imposed upon span lengths less than 3 that regulate gray level and spatial frequency content. However, span lengths of 3 or greater may still influence discrimination by altering the distribution of the spatial-frequency content.