The role of spatial frequency in color induction

Isolation of brightness induction effects on target patches from adjacent surrounds and remote backgrounds

The brightness (perceived intensity) of a region of visual space depends on its luminance and on the luminance of nearby regions. This phenomenon is called brightness induction and includes both brightness contrast and assimilation. Historically, and on a purely descriptive level, brightness contrast refers to a directional shift in target brightness away from the brightness of an adjacent region while assimilation refers to a brightness shift toward that of an adjacent region. In order to understand mechanisms, it is important to differentiate the descriptive terms contrast and assimilation from the optical and/or neural processes, often similarly named, which cause the effects. Experiment 1 isolated the effect on target patch (64 cd/m2) matching luminance (brightness) of six surround-ring widths (0.1°–24.5°) varied over 11 surround-ring luminances (32–96 cd/m2). Using the same observers, Experiment 2 examined the effect of the identical surround-ring parameters on target patch matching luminance in the presence of a dark (0.0 cd/m2) and a bright (96 cd/m2) remote background. By differencing the results of Experiment 1 (the isolated effect of the surround-ring) from those of Experiment 2 (the combined effect of the surround-ring with the dark and bright remote background) we further isolated the effect of the remote background. The results reveal that surround-rings and remote backgrounds produce brightness contrast effects in the target patch that are of the same or opposite polarity depending on the luminance polarity of these regions relative to target patch luminance. The strength of brightness contrast from the surround-ring varied with surround-ring luminance and width. Brightness contrast (darkening) in the target from the bright remote background was relatively constant in magnitude across all surround-ring luminances and increased in magnitude with decreasing surround-ring width. Brightness contrast (brightening) from the isolated dark remote background also increased in magnitude with decreasing surround-ring width: however, despite some regional flattening of the functions due to the fixed luminance of the dark remote background, induction magnitude was much reduced in the presence of a surround-ring of greater luminance than the target patch indicating a non-linear interaction between the dark remote background and surround-ring luminance.

The contribution of luminance and chromatic channels to color assimilation

Color induction is the phenomenon where the physical and the perceived colors of an object differ owing to the color distribution and the spatial configuration of the surrounding objects. Previous works studying this phenomenon on the lsY MacLeod-Boynton color space, show that color assimilation is present only when the magnocellular pathway (i.e., the Y axis) is activated (i.e., when there are luminance differences). Concretely, the authors showed that the effect is mainly induced by the koniocellular pathway (s axis), but not by the parvocellular pathway (l axis), suggesting that when magnocellular pathway is activated it inhibits the koniocellular pathway. In the present work, we study whether parvo-, konio-, and magnocellular pathways may influence on each other through the color induction effect. Our results show that color assimilation does not depend on a chromatic-chromatic interaction, and that chromatic assimilation is driven by the interaction between luminance and chromatic channels (mainly the magno- and the koniocellular pathways). Our results also show that chromatic induction is greatly decreased when all three visual pathways are simultaneously activated, and that chromatic pathways could influence each other through the magnocellular (luminance) pathway. In addition, we observe that chromatic channels can influence the luminance channel, hence inducing a small brightness induction. All these results show that color induction is a highly complex process where interactions between the several visual pathways are yet unknown and should be studied in greater detail.

Influence of Stimulus Size on Simultaneous Chromatic Induction

Chromatic induction is a major contextual effect of color appearance. Patterned backgrounds are known to induce strong chromatic induction effects. However, it has not been clarified whether the spatial extent of the chromatic surrounding induces a chromatic contrast or assimilation effects. In this study, we examined the influence of the width of a center line and its flanking white contour on the color appearance when the line was surrounded by chromatic backgrounds. A strong color shift was observed when the center line was flanked by white contours with the L/M- and S-cone chromatic backgrounds. There was a difference between the optimal widths of the center line and the contour for the shift in color appearance for the L/M-cone chromaticity (0.9 and 1.1–1.7 min, respectively) and the S-cone chromaticity (8.2–17.5 and 0.9–2.5 min, respectively). The optimal width of the center line for the L/M-cone was finer than the resolution-limit width of the chromatic contrast sensitivity and coarser than that of the luminance contrast sensitivity. Thus, the color appearance of the center line could be obtained by integrating broad chromatic information and fine luminance details. Due to blurring and chromatic aberrations, the simulated artifact was large for the darker center line and S-cone background, thus suggesting that the artifact could explain the luminance dependency of the induction along the S-cone chromaticity. Moreover, the findings of this study reveal that the dominant factor of the color shift is neural instead of optical.

Chromatic Induction in Migraine

The human visual system is not a colorimeter. The perceived colour of a region does not only depend on its colour spectrum, but also on the colour spectra and geometric arrangement of neighbouring regions, a phenomenon called chromatic induction. Chromatic induction is thought to be driven by lateral interactions: the activity of a central neuron is modified by stimuli outside its classical receptive field through excitatory-inhibitory mechanisms. As there is growing evidence of an excitation/inhibition imbalance in migraine, we compared chromatic induction in migraine and control groups. As hypothesised, we found a difference in the strength of induction between the two groups, with stronger induction effects in migraine. On the other hand, given the increased prevalence of visual phenomena in migraine with aura, we also hypothesised that the difference between migraine and control would be more important in migraine with aura than in migraine without aura. Our experiments did not support this hypothesis. Taken together, our results suggest a link between excitation/inhibition imbalance and increased induction effects.

Large enhancement of simultaneous color contrast by white flanking contours

Simultaneous color contrast and assimilation are mutually opposing effects on color appearance, and their magnitude depends on spatial context. The Monnier-Shevell illusion induces a large color shift by a synergy of simultaneous assimilation and contrast using the alternating color of proximal and distant surrounds. The illusion induces a prominent effect along the blue-yellow color axis, but a subtle effect along the orthogonal color axis. In this study, we report an illusion generated by an extremely thin gray line on a cyan background that appears reddish when the line is flanked by thin white contours. We quantified the color appearance of the gray line in a color matching experiment and found that the color shift of the gray line with white contours induced large color shifts. It is also known that luminance contrast between a center and its surrounds affects the magnitude of simultaneous color contrast. However, our color contrast effects were larger for a dark line rather than for a pale line. In contrast, the perceived color shift of the line without the contours increased as the luminance of the gray line increased, supporting the known effect of Kirschmann's third law. These results indicate that Kirschmann's third law fails to explain the perceived color shift of our illusion, even after accounting for optical factors like aberrations. Observed color shifts could be explained by an augmented synergy theory based on intensity space, rather than chromaticity.

A neural field model for color perception unifying assimilation and contrast

We address the question of color-space interactions in the brain, by proposing a neural field model of color perception with spatial context for the visual area V1 of the cortex. Our framework reconciles two opposing perceptual phenomena, known as simultaneous contrast and chromatic assimilation. They have been previously shown to act synergistically, so that at some point in an image, the color seems perceptually more similar to that of adjacent neighbors, while being more dissimilar from that of remote ones. Thus, their combined effects are enhanced in the presence of a spatial pattern, and can be measured as larger shifts in color matching experiments. Our model supposes a hypercolumnar structure coding for colors in V1, and relies on the notion of color opponency introduced by Hering. The connectivity kernel of the neural field exploits the balance between attraction and repulsion in color and physical spaces, so as to reproduce the sign reversal in the influence of neighboring points. The color sensation at a point, defined from a steady state of the neural activities, is then extracted as a nonlinear percept conveyed by an assembly of neurons. It connects the cortical and perceptual levels, because we describe the search for a color match in asymmetric matching experiments as a mathematical projection on color sensations. We validate our color neural field alongside this color matching framework, by performing a multi-parameter regression to data produced by psychophysicists and ourselves. All the results show that we are able to explain the nonlinear behavior of shifts observed along one or two dimensions in color space, which cannot be done using a simple linear model.

Color induction in equiluminant flashed stimuli

Color induction is the influence of the surrounding color (inducer) on the perceived color of a central region. There are two different types of color induction: color contrast (the color of the central region shifts away from that of the inducer) and color assimilation (the color shifts towards the color of the inducer). Several studies on these effects have used uniform and striped surrounds, reporting color contrast and color assimilation, respectively. Other authors [J. Vis.12(1), 22 (2012)1534-736210.1167/12.12.1] have studied color induction using flashed uniform surrounds, reporting that the contrast is higher for shorter flash duration. Extending their study, we present new psychophysical results using both flashed and static (i.e., non-flashed) equiluminant stimuli for both striped and uniform surrounds. Similarly to them, for uniform surround stimuli we observed color contrast, but we did not obtain the maximum contrast for the shortest (10 ms) flashed stimuli, but for 40 ms. We only observed this maximum contrast for red, green, and lime inducers, while for a purple inducer we obtained an asymptotic profile along the flash duration. For striped stimuli, we observed color assimilation only for the static (infinite flash duration) red-green surround inducers (red first inducer, green second inducer). For the other inducers' configurations, we observed color contrast or no induction. Since other studies showed that non-equiluminant striped static stimuli induce color assimilation, our results also suggest that luminance differences could be a key factor to induce it.

The effect of luminance differences on color assimilation

The color appearance of a surface depends on the color of its surroundings (inducers). When the perceived color shifts towards that of the surroundings, the effect is called "color assimilation" and when it shifts away from the surroundings it is called "color contrast." There is also evidence that the phenomenon depends on the spatial configuration of the inducer, e.g., uniform surrounds tend to induce color contrast and striped surrounds tend to induce color assimilation. However, previous work found that striped surrounds under certain conditions do not induce color assimilation but induce color contrast (or do not induce anything at all), suggesting that luminance differences and high spatial frequencies could be key factors in color assimilation. Here we present a new psychophysical study of color assimilation where we assessed the contribution of luminance differences (between the target and its surround) present in striped stimuli. Our results show that luminance differences are key factors in color assimilation for stimuli varying along the s axis of MacLeod-Boynton color space, but not for stimuli varying along the l axis. This asymmetry suggests that koniocellular neural mechanisms responsible for color assimilation only contribute when there is a luminance difference, supporting the idea that mutual-inhibition has a major role in color induction.

Sensations from a single M-cone depend on the activity of surrounding S-cones

Color vision requires the activity of cone photoreceptors to be compared in post-receptoral circuitry. Decades of psychophysical measurements have quantified the nature of these comparative interactions on a coarse scale. How such findings generalize to a cellular scale remains unclear. To answer that question, we quantified the influence of surrounding light on the appearance of spots targeted to individual cones. The eye's aberrations were corrected with adaptive optics and retinal position was precisely tracked in real-time to compensate for natural movement. Subjects reported the color appearance of each spot. A majority of L-and M-cones consistently gave rise to the sensation of white, while a smaller group repeatedly elicited hue sensations. When blue sensations were reported they were more likely mediated by M- than L-cones. Blue sensations were elicited from M-cones against a short-wavelength light that preferentially elevated the quantal catch in surrounding S-cones, while stimulation of the same cones against a white background elicited green sensations. In one of two subjects, proximity to S-cones increased the probability of blue reports when M-cones were probed. We propose that M-cone increments excited both green and blue opponent pathways, but the relative activity of neighboring cones favored one pathway over the other.

Chromatic induction in space and time

The color appearance of a light depends on variation in the complete visual field over both space and time. In the spatial domain, a chromatic stimulus within a patterned chromatic surround can appear a different hue than the same stimulus within a uniform surround. In the temporal domain, a stimulus presented as an element of a continuously changing chromaticity can appear a different color compared to the identical stimulus, presented simultaneously but viewed alone. This is the flash-lag effect for color, which has an analog in the domain of motion: a pulsed object seen alone can appear to lag behind an identical pulsed object that is an element of a motion sequence. Studies of the flash-lag effect for motion have considered whether it is mediated by a neural representation for the moving physical stimulus or, alternatively, for the perceived motion. The current study addresses this question for the flash-lag effect for color by testing whether the color flash lag depends on a representation of only the changing chromatic stimulus or, alternatively, its color percept, which can be altered by chromatic induction.

METHODS

baseline measurements for spatial chromatic induction determined the chromaticity of a flashed ring within a uniform surround that matched a flashed ring within a patterned surround. Baseline measurements for the color flash-lag effect determined the chromaticity of a pulsed ring presented alone (within a uniform surround) that matched a pulsed ring presented in a sequence of changing chromaticity over time (also within a uniform surround). Finally, the main experiments combined chromatic induction from a patterned surround and the flash-lag effect, in three conditions: (1) both the changing and pulsed rings were within a patterned chromatic surround; (2) the changing ring was within a patterned surround and the pulsed ring within a uniform surround; and (3) the changing ring was within a uniform surround and the pulsed ring within a patterned surround.

RESULTS

the flash-lag measurements for a changing chromaticity were affected by perceptual changes induced by the surrounding chromatic pattern. Thus, the color shifts induced by a chromatic surround are incorporated in the neural representation mediating the flash-lag effect for color.

Bioplausible multiscale filtering in retino-cortical processing as a mechanism in perceptual grouping

Why does our visual system fail to reconstruct reality, when we look at certain patterns? Where do Geometrical illusions start to emerge in the visual pathway? How far should we take computational models of vision with the same visual ability to detect illusions as we do? This study addresses these questions, by focusing on a specific underlying neural mechanism involved in our visual experiences that affects our final perception. Among many types of visual illusion, 'Geometrical' and, in particular, 'Tilt Illusions' are rather important, being characterized by misperception of geometric patterns involving lines and tiles in combination with contrasting orientation, size or position. Over the last decade, many new neurophysiological experiments have led to new insights as to how, when and where retinal processing takes place, and the encoding nature of the retinal representation that is sent to the cortex for further processing. Based on these neurobiological discoveries, we provide computer simulation evidence from modelling retinal ganglion cells responses to some complex Tilt Illusions, suggesting that the emergence of tilt in these illusions is partially related to the interaction of multiscale visual processing performed in the retina. The output of our low-level filtering model is presented for several types of Tilt Illusion, predicting that the final tilt percept arises from multiple-scale processing of the Differences of Gaussians and the perceptual interaction of foreground and background elements. The model is a variation of classical receptive field implementation for simple cells in early stages of vision with the scales tuned to the object/texture sizes in the pattern. Our results suggest that this model has a high potential in revealing the underlying mechanism connecting low-level filtering approaches to mid- and high-level explanations such as 'Anchoring theory' and 'Perceptual grouping'.

Dissecting the influence of the collinear and flanking bars in White's effect

In White's effect equiluminant test patches placed on the black and white bars of a square-wave grating appear different in brightness. The illusion has generated intense interest because the direction of the brightness effect does not correlate with the amount of black or white border in contact with the test patch, or in its general vicinity. Therefore, unlike brightness induction effects such as simultaneous contrast, White's effect is not consistent with explanations based on contrast or assimilation that depend solely on the relative amounts of black and white surrounding the test patches. We independently manipulated the luminance of the collinear and flanking bars to investigate their influence on test patch matching luminance (brightness). The inducing grating was a 0.5c/d square-wave and test patches measured 1.0° in width and either 0.5° or 3.0° in height. Test patches measuring 0.5° in height had more extensive contact with the collinear bars and test patches measuring 3.0° in height had more extensive contact with the flanking bars. The luminance of the collinear (or flanking) bars assumed twenty values from 3.2 to 124.8cd/m(2), while the luminance of the flanking (or collinear) bars remained white (124.8cd/m(2)) or black (3.2cd/m(2)). Under these conditions the influence of the collinear and flanking bars was found to be purely in the direction of contrast. The effect was dominated by contrast from the collinear bars (which results in White's effect), however, the influence of the flanking bars was also in the contrast direction. The data elucidate the luminance relationships between the collinear and flanking bars which produce the behavior associated with White's effect as well as that associated with "the inverted White effect" which is akin to simultaneous contrast.

Physiological correlates of watercolor effect

The watercolor effect is a visual illusion that manifests itself as a combination of long-range color spreading and figure-ground organization. The current study uses behavioral and physiological measures to study the watercolor effect. We utilize a novel technique of measuring the cortical response of the illusion using the visual evoked potential (VEP). To this end, three experiments were done to investigate the contributions of luminance and hue to the magnitude of the illusion. Results of both VEP and behavior indicate a marked decrease in the -S (yellow) direction in illusion magnitude compared to the +S (blue) illusion, even though these colors were previously matched for perceptual salience.

Brightness Alteration with Interweaving Contours

Chromatic induction is observed whenever the perceived colour of a target surface shifts towards the hue of a neighbouring surface. Some vivid manifestations may be seen in a white background where thin coloured lines have been drawn (assimilation) or when lines of different colours are collinear (neon effect) or adjacent (watercolour) to each other. This study examines a particular colour induction that manifests in concomitance with an opposite effect of colour saturation (or anti-spread). The two phenomena can be observed when a repetitive pattern is drawn in which outline thin contours intercept wider contours or surfaces, colour spreading appear to fill the surface occupied by surfaces or thick lines whereas the background traversed by thin lines is seen as brighter or filled of a saturated white. These phenomena were first observed by Bozzi (1975) and Kanizsa (1979) in figural conditions that did not allow them to document their conjunction. Here we illustrate various manifestations of this twofold phenomenon and compare its effects with the known effects of brightness and colour induction. Some conjectures on the nature of these effects are discussed.

Effect of optical aberrations on the color appearance of small defocused lights

We investigated influences of optics and surround area on color appearance of defocused, small narrow band photopic lights (1' arc diameter, lambda(max) 510-628 nm) centered within a black annulus and surrounded by a white field. Participants included seven normal trichromats with L- or M-cone biased ratios. We controlled chromatic aberration with elements of a Powell achromatizing lens and corrected higher-order aberrations with an adaptive optics system. Longitudinal chromatic aberrations, but not monochromatic aberrations, are involved in changing appearance of small lights with defocus. Surround field structure is important because color changes were not observed when lights were presented on a uniform white surround.

Induced temporal variation at frequencies not in the stimulus: evidence for a neural nonlinearity

The perceived color of a light depends on surrounding light. When the surround varies slowly over time, a central, physically steady light is perceived to vary also. This perceived temporal variation of the central region, however, is strongly attenuated when the surround varies faster than approximately 3 Hz (R. L. De Valois, M. A. Webster, K. K. De Valois, & B. Lingelbach, 1986). The classical explanation is low-pass temporal filtering at a cortical stage that attenuates the neural representation of temporal frequencies capable of causing induced temporal variation. This theory assumes neural responses are linear, so only temporal frequencies in the stimulus are represented in the neural response. The current experiments revealed that temporal frequencies above 3 Hz are capable of inducing temporal variation. Specifically, with two temporal frequencies superimposed in the surround, the induced temporal variation in the uniform region is at the difference frequency of these two frequencies, even though this frequency is not physically present in the stimulus. The results are accounted for by a nonlinear neural process, which causes temporal variation at the difference frequency, and a following linear temporal filter.

Context effects in haptic perception of roughness

The influence of temporal and spatial context during haptic roughness perception was investigated in two experiments. Subjects examined embossed dot patterns of varying average dot distance. A two-alternative forced-choice procedure was used to measure discrimination thresholds and biases. In Experiment 1, subjects had to discriminate between two stimuli that were presented simultaneously to adjacent fingers, after adaptation of one of these fingers. The results showed that adaptation to a rough surface decreased the perceived roughness of a surface subsequently scanned with the adapted finger, whereas adaptation to a smooth surface increased the perceived roughness (i.e. contrast after effect). In Experiment 2, subjects discriminated between subsequent test stimuli, while the adjacent finger was stimulated simultaneously. The results showed that perceived roughness of the test stimulus shifted towards the roughness of the adjacent stimulus (i.e. assimilation effect). These contextual effects are explained by structures of cortical receptive fields. Analogies with comparable effects in the visual system are discussed.

Standard definitions of chromatic induction fail to describe induction with S-cone patterned backgrounds

Inducing patterns that selectively stimulate the S cones can induce large shifts in color appearance. For example, a "peach" test-ring presented within contiguous purple and non-contiguous lime inducing rings appears pink while the physically identical peach test-ring appears orange when presented within contiguous lime and non-contiguous purple inducing rings (Fig. 1c). These shifts have been accounted for by a neural substrate which predicts that chromatic assimilation and simultaneous contrast can operate synergistically to produce large shifts with these patterns [Monnier, P., & Shevell, S. K. (2004). Chromatic induction from S-cone patterns. Vision Research, 44, 849-856]. Here, induction was measured for test-rings that stimulated the S cones either more or less than did the inducing rings. According to standard definitions of induction, color shifts for test s-chromaticities either lower or higher than both inducing chromaticities should be attenuated compared to test-rings of intermediate S-cone stimulation. On the other hand, a previously proposed model of induction predicted independence of the color shifts with test-ring s-chromaticity. Consistent with standard definitions of induction, a reduction in the magnitude of the color shifts for test-ring chromaticities either lower or higher in S-cone excitation than the inducing chromaticities was observed. Additional measurements with patterns that have been shown to isolate assimilation and simultaneous contrast were conducted. For these patterns, expectations based on standard definitions of induction suggested that the magnitude of the color shifts should be monotonic with the S-cone stimulation of the test-ring, and the direction of the color shift should reverse for test-ring chromaticities either lower or higher than both inducing chromaticities compared to test-rings of intermediate chromaticity. In contrast, the previously proposed model of induction based on a receptive-field with S-cone spatial antagonism predicted the color shifts should be independent of the test-ring chromaticity (Monnier & Shevell, 2004). Color shifts were generally independent of the level of the test-ring chromaticity, supporting the S-cone antagonistic model of induction.

Multiresolution wavelet framework models brightness induction effects

A new multiresolution wavelet model is presented here, which accounts for brightness assimilation and contrast effects in a unified framework, and includes known psychophysical and physiological attributes of the primate visual system (such as spatial frequency channels, oriented receptive fields, contrast sensitivity function, contrast non-linearities, and a unified set of parameters). Like other low-level models, such as the ODOG model [Blakeslee, B., & McCourt, M. E. (1999). A multiscale spatial filtering account of the white effect, simultaneous brightness contrast and grating induction. Vision Research, 39, 4361-4377], this formulation reproduces visual effects such as simultaneous contrast, the White effect, grating induction, the Todorović effect, Mach bands, the Chevreul effect and the Adelson-Logvinenko tile effects, but it also reproduces other previously unexplained effects such as the dungeon illusion, all using a single set of parameters.

The influence of depth segmentation on colour constancy

In real scenes, surfaces in different depth planes often differ in the luminance and chromatic content of their illumination. Scene segmentation is therefore an important issue when considering the compensation of illumination changes in our visual perception (lightness and colour constancy). Chromatic adaptation is an important sensory component of colour constancy and has been shown to be linked to the two-dimensional spatial structure of a scene (Werner, 2003 Vision Research 43 1611 - 1623). Here, the question is posed whether this cooperation also extends to the organisation of a scene in depth. The influence of depth on colour constancy was tested by introducing stereo disparity, whereby the test patch and background were perceived in either the same or one of five different depth planes (1.9-57 min of arc). There were no additional cues to depth such as shadows or specular highlights. For consistent illumination changes, colour constancy was reduced when the test patch and background were separated in depth, indicating a reduction of contextual influences. An interaction was found between the influences of stereo depth and spatial frequency on colour constancy. In the case of an inconsistent illumination change, colour constancy was reduced if the test patch and background were in the same depth plane (2-D condition), but not if they were separated in depth (3-D condition). Furthermore, colour constancy was slightly better in the 3-D inconsistent condition than in the 2-D inconsistent condition. It is concluded that depth segmentation supports colour constancy in scenes with inconsistent illumination changes. Processes of depth segmentation are implemented at an early sensory stage of colour constancy, and they define visual regions within which the effects of illuminant changes are discounted for separately. The results support recent models that posit such implementation of scene segmentation in colour constancy.

Evidence for the existence of colour mechanisms producing unique hues as derived from a colour illusion based on spatio-chromatic interactions

When its spatial frequency is high enough, a grid of grey horizontal strips presented on a coloured background may change its neutral colour. It was found that some background colours induce a strong illusion and some no illusion at all. The effect of the background colour on the illusion was studied for the spatial frequencies of 0.5, 2.5, 4, and 8 c/deg. Thirty chromaticities (evenly distributed across the colour gamut triangle) of the backgrounds in the equiluminant plane, and 24 in the ML plane (where S-contrast was zero), were tested. Five matches were made for each frequency and each background chromaticity. Viewing was binocular. For the low (0.5 c/deg) frequency strips, the backgrounds were found to induce the colour, if any, approximately complimentary to that of the background (i.e., chromatic simultaneous contrast). For the high (8 c/deg) frequency, most backgrounds induced only illusory colours close to unique hues (yellow, blue, and green), with a few backgrounds inducing a mixture of green with blue. Then, the method of adjustment was used to determine the unique hues for the same three observers. A remarkable similarity was found between unique hues and illusory loci, suggesting that the illusion is due to a difference in the spatial resolution of the post-receptor channels producing the unique hues.

Design and evaluation of tiled parallel coordinate visualization of multichannel EEG data

The field of visualization assists data interpretation in many areas, but does not manage all types of data equally well. This holds, in particular, for time-varying multichannel EEG data. No existing method can successfully visualize simultaneous information from all channels in use at all time steps. To address this problem, a new visualization method is presented based on the parallel coordinate method and making use of a tiled organization. This tiled organization employs a two-dimensional row-column representation, rather than a one-dimensional arrangement in columns as used for classical parallel coordinates. The usefulness of the new method, referred to as tiled parallel coordinates (TPC), is demonstrated by a particular type of EEG data. It can be applied to an arbitrary number of time steps, handling the maximum number of channels currently in use. An extensive user evaluation shows that, for a typical EEG assessment task, data evaluation by the TPC method is faster than by an existing clinical EEG visualization method, without loss of information. The generality of the TPC method makes it widely applicable to other time-varying multivariate data types.

Spatial dependence of color assimilation by the watercolor effect

Color assimilation with bichromatic contours was quantified for spatial extents ranging from von Bezold-type color assimilation to the watercolor effect. The magnitude and direction of assimilative hue change was measured as a function of the width of a rectangular stimulus. Assimilation was quantified by hue cancellation. Large hue shifts were required to null the color of stimuli < or = 9.3 min of arc in width, with an exponential decrease for stimuli increasing up to 7.4 deg. When stimuli were viewed through an achromatizing lens, the magnitude of the assimilation effect was reduced for narrow stimuli, but not for wide ones. These results demonstrate that chromatic aberration may account, in part, for color assimilation over small, but not large, surface areas.

Induced steady color shifts from temporally varying surrounds

The color appearance of a physically steady central region can appear to vary over time if a surrounding chromatic light varies in time. The induced temporal variation, however, is strongly attenuated at surround temporal frequencies above approximately 3 Hz. At these higher temporal frequencies, the central region appears steady (De Valois et al., 1986). The posited explanation is a cortical low-pass temporal filter. Here, we investigate whether higher temporal-frequency surrounds induce color shifts in the steady appearance of the central test. Surrounds modulated in time along the l or s chromatic direction of MacLeod-Boynton color space were symmetric around equal-energy white (EEW). The temporal frequency of the surround was varied. If observers perceived the central test to be temporally modulating between two points in time, they set two separate matches to the extreme points of this modulation. If the central test appeared steady in time, then color matches were made to this steady appearance. Corroborating previous reports, measurements showed that surround temporal frequencies below approximately 3 Hz induced temporal modulation. At higher temporal frequencies, however, the surround induced steady color shifts, compared to a steady surround at its time average (EEW). The measurements imply that a nonlinear neural process affects chromatic induction from time-varying context.

Spatial profile of contours inducing long-range color assimilation

Color induction was measured using a matching method for two spatial patterns, each composed of double contours. In one pattern (the standard), the contours had sharp edges to induce the Watercolor Effect (WCE); in the other, the two contours had a spatial taper so that the overall profile produced a sawtooth edge, or ramped stimulus. These patterns were chosen based on our previous study demonstrating that the strength of the chromatic WCE depends on a luminance difference between the two contours. Low-pass chromatic mechanisms, unlike bandpass luminance mechanisms, may be expected to be insensitive to the difference between the two spatial profiles. The strength of the watercolor spreading was similar for the two patterns at narrow widths of the contour possibly because of chromatic aberration, but with wider contours, the standard stimulus produced stronger assimilation than the ramped stimulus. This research suggests that luminance-dependent chromatic mechanisms mediate the WCE and that these mechanisms are sensitive to differences in the two spatial profiles of the pattern contours only when they are wide.

Illusory spreading of watercolor

The watercolor effect (WCE) is a phenomenon of long-range color assimilation occurring when a dark chromatic contour delineating a figure is flanked on the inside by a brighter chromatic contour; the brighter color spreads into the entire enclosed area. Here, we determined the optimal chromatic parameters and the cone signals supporting the WCE. To that end, we quantified the effect of color assimilation using hue cancellation as a function of hue, colorimetric purity, and cone modulation of inducing contours. When the inner and outer contours had chromaticities that were in opposite directions in color space, a stronger WCE was obtained as compared with other color directions. Additionally, equal colorimetric purity between the outer and inner contours was necessary to obtain a large effect compared with conditions in which the contours differed in colorimetric purity. However, there was no further increase in the magnitude of the effect when the colorimetric purity increased beyond a value corresponding to an equal vector length between the inner and outer contours. Finally, L-M-cone-modulated WCE was perceptually stronger than S-cone-modulated WCE for our conditions. This last result demonstrates that both L-M-cone and S-cone pathways are important for watercolor spreading. Our data suggest that the WCE depends critically upon the particular spatiochromatic arrangement in the display, with the relative chromatic contrast between the inducing contours being particularly important.

Chromatic assimilation measured by temporal nulling

Chromatic assimilation is the shift in color appearance toward nearby light. Assimilation was measured using nearby light with time-varying chromaticity. This light induced time-varying assimilation within the test area. Assimilation was quantified by the amplitude of temporally varying test-area light--in counter-phase to the induced assimilation--required to null the assimilation. Unlike previous studies of assimilation, observers here judged only the steadiness of the test area, not its color. The inducing light was varied in luminance, temporal frequency and chromaticity. The measured assimilation could not be explained by only optical factors affecting receptoral quantal absorption. This implies a neural process contributes to assimilation. The nulling measurements showed also that assimilation was not induced independently within the L/M- and S-cone pathways.

A unified theory of brightness contrast and assimilation incorporating oriented multiscale spatial filtering and contrast normalization

Brightness induction includes both contrast and assimilations effects. Brightness contrast occurs when the brightness of a test region shifts away from the brightness of adjacent regions. Brightness assimilation refers to the opposite situation in which the brightness of the test region shifts toward that of the surrounding regions. Interestingly, in the White effect [Perception 8 (1979) 413] the direction of the induced brightness change does not correlate with the amount of black or white border in contact with the gray test patch. This has led some investigators to reject spatial filtering explanations not only for the White effect but for brightness perception in general. Instead, these investigators have offered explanations based on a variety of junction analyses and/or perceptual organization schemes. Here, these approaches are challenged with a critical set of new psychophysical measurements that determined the magnitude of the White effect, the shifted White effect [Perception 10 (1981) 215] and the checkerboard illusion [R.L. DeValois, K.K. DeValois, Spatial Vision, Oxford University Press, NY, 1988] as a function of inducing pattern spatial frequency and test patch height. The oriented difference-of-Gaussians (ODOG) computational model of Blakeslee and McCourt [Vision Res. 39 (1999) 4361] parsimoniously accounts for the psychophysical data, and illustrates that mechanisms based on junction analysis or perceptual inference are not required to explain them. According to the ODOG model, brightness induction results from linear spatial filtering with an incomplete basis set (the finite array of spatial filters in the human visual system). In addition, orientation selectivity of the filters and contrast normalization across orientation channels are critical for explaining some brightness effects, such as the White effect.

Chromatic assimilation: spread light or neural mechanism?

Chromatic assimilation is the shift in color appearance of a test field toward the appearance of nearby light. Possible explanations of chromatic assimilation include wavelength independent spread light, wavelength-dependent chromatic aberration and neural summation. This study evaluated these explanations by measuring chromatic assimilation from a concentric-ring pattern into an equal-energy-white background, as a function of the inducing rings' width, separation, chromaticity and luminance. The measurements showed, in the s direction, that assimilation was observed with different inducing-ring widths and separations when the inducing luminance was lower or higher than the test luminance. In general, the thinner the inducing rings and the smaller their separation, the stronger the assimilation in s. In the l direction, either assimilation or contrast was observed, depending on the ring width, separation and luminance. Overall, the measured assimilation could not be accounted for by the joint contributions from wavelength-independent spread light and wavelength-dependent chromatic aberration. Spatial averaging of neural signals explained the assimilation in s reasonably well, but there were clear deviations from neural spatial averaging for the l direction.

Chromatic assimilation unaffected by perceived depth of inducing light

Chromatic assimilation is a shift toward the color of nearby light. Several studies conclude that a neural process contributes to assimilation but the neural locus remains in question. Some studies posit a peripheral process, such as retinal receptive-field organization, while others claim the neural mechanism follows depth perception, figure/ground segregation, or perceptual grouping. The experiments here tested whether assimilation depends on a neural process that follows stereoscopic depth perception. By introducing binocular disparity, the test field judged in color was made to appear in a different depth plane than the light that induced assimilation. The chromaticity and spatial frequency of the inducing light, and the chromaticity of the test light, were varied. Chromatic assimilation was found with all inducing-light sizes and chromaticities, but the magnitude of assimilation did not depend on the perceived relative depth planes of the test and inducing fields. We found no evidence to support the view that chromatic assimilation depends on a neural process that follows binocular combination of the two eyes' signals.

Large shifts in color appearance from patterned chromatic backgrounds

The perceived color of a light varies with the background on which it is seen. In the present study, patterned backgrounds composed of two different chromaticities caused larger shifts in perceived color than did a uniform background at either chromaticity within the pattern. Cortical receptive-field organization, but not optical factors or known retinal neurons, can account for the color shifts from patterned backgrounds.

The consequences of opponent rectification: the effect of surround size and luminance on color appearance

Smith and Pokorny (Vision Res. 36 (1996) 3087.) described conditions under which chromatic contrast induction can reveal a hiatus, a region of chromaticity space which appears neither reddish nor greenish when presented in a chromatic equiluminant surround. The current study investigated the effect of varying the size and the luminance of the inducing surround. The color appearance of test stimuli in chromatic surrounds was assessed by asymmetric color matching to a comparison display. Equiluminant (12 cd/m(2)), 1 degrees square stimuli were generated on a CRT display and presented haploscopically. Ten test fields varied in their L-cone excitation along a constant S-cone line. The chromatic surrounds were of either high (red) or low (green) L-cone excitation on a constant S-cone line. In Experiment 1, surrounds were 1.1 degrees, 1.5 degrees, 2.0 degrees, or 3.0 degrees square (surround widths of 3', 15', 30', 1 degrees ). In Experiment 2, the test and comparison surrounds were at higher (16.7 cd/m(2)) or lower (8.3 cd/m(2)) retinal illuminance than the test field. Contrast induction reached an asymptote for surround widths of 30' or larger. The amount of induction decreased for the surround widths of 15' and 3'. The hiatus was present for the larger surrounds and decreased as surround size decreased. The use of a higher or lower surround luminance did not affect the magnitude of induction or the size of the hiatus.