Center-surround antagonism in spatial vision: Retinal or cortical locus?

Abstract

Mach and Hering had early advanced a model of spatial visual processing featuring an antagonistic interaction between adjoining areas in the visual field. Spatial opponency was one of the first findings when single-unit studies of the retina were begun. Not long afterwards psychophysical experiments revealed a center-surround organization closely matching that found in the mammalian retina. It hinged on the demonstration of reduction of sensitivity in a small patch of the visual field when its surround was changed from dark to bright. Because such patterns inevitably produce borders, well-known phenomena of border interaction could be seen as providing alternative explanations, whose substrate would most likely be in the visual cortex. These competing viewpoints are discussed especially as they pertain to the recent demonstration of spatial differences in the center/surround organization between the normal and affected eyes of amblyopes. To the extent that most findings favor a retinal site for the psychophysically measured antagonism, and that evidence is accumulating for a direct effect on the mammalian retina of stimulus manipulation during visual development, the difference in spatial parameters of center/surround antagonism in amblyopia suggests that the dysfunction in amblyopia begins already in the retina.

Time-course and surround modulation of contrast masking in human vision

“…Finally, the backward masking strength is non-monotonically related to mask size ( Figure 5, solid lines), whereas increasing the inner diameter of the surround mask leads to a steep, monotonic decrease in masking ( Figure 5, dashed lines). Similar dependency on mask size has previously been reported in brightness processing (Crawford, 1940;Westheimer, 1967Westheimer, , 2004 and in simultaneous contrast masking (Yu & Levi, 1997). Petrov and McKee (2006), also studying simultaneous contrast masking, found an exponential decline in surround suppression with increas-ing target-surround distance.…”

Peripheral vision and pattern recognition: A review

“…Kunken, Sun, and Lee (2005) confirmed Oehler's basic result but concluded from differences in the surround part of Westheimer's curve that both retinal and cortical mechanisms contributed to that curve. In summary, Westheimer's paradigm is rather useful for estimating receptive field sizes psychophysically (Westheimer, 2004).…”

Randomized Evaluation of Spectacles Plus Alternate-Day Occlusion to Treat Amblyopia

“…Furthermore, changes in neuronal size have been shown in the lateral geniculate nucleus, and functional imaging studies have suggested that the lateral geniculate nucleus is dysfunctional (Anderson & Swettenham 2006;Wiesel & Hubel 1963a;von Noorden & Crawford 1992;von Noorden et al 1983). Retinal abnormalities also have been found (Arden et al 1980;Westheimer 2004;Williams & Papakostopoulos 1995). Retinal involvement remains controversial since electrophysiological research and studies evaluating optical imaging technology have reported conflicting findings (Gottlob & Welge-Lussen 1987;Leone et al 2008).…”