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Psychophysical evidence for two routes to suppression before binocular summation of signals in human vision

Psychophysical evidence for two routes to suppression before binocular summation of signals in human vision
Psychophysical evidence for two routes to suppression before binocular summation of signals in human vision
Visual mechanisms in primary visual cortex are suppressed by the superposition of gratings perpendicular to their preferred orientations. A clear picture of this process is needed to (i) inform functional architecture of image-processing models, (ii) identify the pathways available to support binocular rivalry, and (iii) generally advance our understanding of early vision. Here we use monoptic sine-wave gratings and cross-orientation masking (XOM) to reveal two cross-oriented suppressive pathways in humans, both of which occur before full binocular summation of signals. One is a within-eye (ipsiocular) pathway that is spatially broadband, immune to contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that tends to decrease with stimulus duration. The other pathway operates between the eyes (interocular), is spatially tuned, desensitizes with contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that increases with stimulus duration. When cross-oriented masks are presented to both eyes, masking is enhanced or diminished for conditions in which either ipsiocular or interocular pathways dominate masking, respectively. We propose that ipsiocular suppression precedes the influence of interocular suppression and tentatively associate the two effects with the lateral geniculate nucleus (or retina) and the visual cortex respectively. The interocular route is a good candidate for the initial pathway involved in binocular rivalry and predicts that interocular cross-orientation suppression should be found in cortical cells with predominantly ipsiocular drive.
human vision, psychophysics, cross-orientation inhibition, contrast gain control, masking, binocular rivalry
0306-4522
435-448
Baker, D.H.
c581e755-4d12-40fa-9fca-5d4a29756141
Meese, T.S.
bbd04225-e94f-405a-8e42-112f38a5c1e1
Summers, R.J.
f4aac7b5-a79a-41ad-845c-63286973d5df
Baker, D.H.
c581e755-4d12-40fa-9fca-5d4a29756141
Meese, T.S.
bbd04225-e94f-405a-8e42-112f38a5c1e1
Summers, R.J.
f4aac7b5-a79a-41ad-845c-63286973d5df

Baker, D.H., Meese, T.S. and Summers, R.J. (2007) Psychophysical evidence for two routes to suppression before binocular summation of signals in human vision. Neuroscience, 146 (1), 435-448. (doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.01.030).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Visual mechanisms in primary visual cortex are suppressed by the superposition of gratings perpendicular to their preferred orientations. A clear picture of this process is needed to (i) inform functional architecture of image-processing models, (ii) identify the pathways available to support binocular rivalry, and (iii) generally advance our understanding of early vision. Here we use monoptic sine-wave gratings and cross-orientation masking (XOM) to reveal two cross-oriented suppressive pathways in humans, both of which occur before full binocular summation of signals. One is a within-eye (ipsiocular) pathway that is spatially broadband, immune to contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that tends to decrease with stimulus duration. The other pathway operates between the eyes (interocular), is spatially tuned, desensitizes with contrast adaptation and has a suppressive weight that increases with stimulus duration. When cross-oriented masks are presented to both eyes, masking is enhanced or diminished for conditions in which either ipsiocular or interocular pathways dominate masking, respectively. We propose that ipsiocular suppression precedes the influence of interocular suppression and tentatively associate the two effects with the lateral geniculate nucleus (or retina) and the visual cortex respectively. The interocular route is a good candidate for the initial pathway involved in binocular rivalry and predicts that interocular cross-orientation suppression should be found in cortical cells with predominantly ipsiocular drive.

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More information

Published date: 25 April 2007
Keywords: human vision, psychophysics, cross-orientation inhibition, contrast gain control, masking, binocular rivalry

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 47919
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/47919
ISSN: 0306-4522
PURE UUID: 40e8f71f-5c7b-45b4-ba99-5943f213873b

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Date deposited: 09 Aug 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 09:40

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Contributors

Author: D.H. Baker
Author: T.S. Meese
Author: R.J. Summers

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