Contrast sensitivity for oscillating sine wave gratings during ocular fixation and pursuit

Flipse, J.P.; Wildt, G. J. van der; Rodenburg, M.; Keemink, C. J.; Knol, Piet

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(88)90029-6

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…That means it is irrelevant, if the retinal-image motion is caused by the eyes or the stimulus itself. Flipse et al (1988) extended these results to a broader range of stimulus velocities, showing again that contrast sensitivity for fixation equals contrast sensitivity for pursuit, if the magnitude of retinalimage motion is equal. More recently, Laird, Rosen, Pelz, Montag, and Daly (2006) determined the two-dimensional spatiovelocity contrast sensitivity function that was first described by Kelly (1979).…”

Section: Comparison To Earlier Studiesmentioning

confidence: 75%

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Temporal contrast sensitivity during smooth pursuit eye movements

et al. 2007

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During smooth pursuit eye movements, stimuli other than the pursuit target move across the retina, and this might affect their detectability. We measured detection thresholds for vertically oriented Gabor stimuli with different temporal frequencies (1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 Hz) of the sinusoids. Observers kept fixation on a small target spot that was either stationary or moved horizontally at a speed of 8 deg/s. The sinusoid of the Gabor stimuli moved either in the same or in the opposite direction as the pursuit target. Observers had to indicate whether the Gabor stimuli were displayed 4 degrees above or below the target spot. Results show that contrast sensitivity was mainly determined by retinal-image motion but was slightly reduced during smooth pursuit eye movements. Moreover, sensitivity for motion opposite to pursuit direction was reduced in comparison to motion in pursuit direction. The loss in sensitivity for peripheral targets during pursuit can be interpreted in terms of space-based attention to the pursuit target. The loss of sensitivity for motion opposite to pursuit direction can be interpreted as feature-based attention to the pursuit direction.

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Section: Comparison To Earlier Studiesmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…For example, in the studies of Flipse et al (1988) or Murphy (1978), the subjects had to track small spots of light that were superimposed on a large sinusoidal grating. Contrast thresholds were then measured for detection of the grating.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal contrast sensitivity during smooth pursuit eye movements

et al. 2007

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“…This transformation not only prevents the reduction in contrast experienced under retinal stabilization, but also redistributes the spatial power of the external stimulus in the space-time domain in a way that counterbalances the structure of natural scenes [7] and enhances sensitivity to high spatial frequencies [36]. Without the fixational head/eye compensation, this redistribution would be altered, retinal image motion would be too fast for high-acuity vision [37–39], and the fixated target would quickly leave the small foveal locus of optimal sensitivity [40]. Thus, the oculomotor behavior described in this study appears to be critical for vision of fine spatial detail.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Head-Eye Coordination at a Microscopic Scale

2015

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Summary Humans explore static visual scenes by alternating rapid eye movements (saccades) with periods of slow and incessant eye drifts [1–3]. These drifts are commonly believed to be the consequence of physiological limits in maintaining steady gaze, resulting in Brownian-like trajectories [4–7], which are almost independent in the two eyes [8–10]. However, because of the technical difficulty of recording minute eye movements, most knowledge on ocular drift comes from artificial laboratory conditions, in which the head of the observer is strictly immobilized. Little is known about eye drift during natural head-free fixation, when microscopic head movements are also continually present [11–13]. We have recently observed that the power spectrum of the visual input to the retina during ocular drift is largely unaffected by fixational head movements [14]. Here we elucidate the mechanism responsible for this invariance. We show that, contrary to common assumption, ocular drift does not move the eyes randomly, but compensates for microscopic head movements, thereby yielding highly correlated movements in the two eyes. This compensatory behavior is extremely fast, persists with one eye patched, and results in image motion trajectories that are only partially correlated on the two retinas. These findings challenge established views of how humans acquire visual information. They show that ocular drift is precisely controlled, as long speculated [15], and imply the existence of neural mechanisms that integrate minute multimodal signals.

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“…In a number of recent studies, it was shown that the visual motion signals driving pursuit and the ones for speed perception can be uncorrelated or even be dissociated (for reviews, see Schu¨tz et al, 2011;Spering & Carrasco, 2015;Spering & Montagnini, 2011). There has been much less effort investigating potential effects of smooth pursuit eye movements on other aspects of perception, such as visual sensitivity (but see Flipse, van der Wildt, Rodenburg, Keemink, & Knol, 1988;Murphy, 1978).…”

Section: Visual Sensitivity During Pursuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interaction Between Vision and Eye Movements

Gegenfurtner

2016

Perception

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The existence of a central fovea, the small retinal region with high analytical performance, is arguably the most prominent design feature of the primate visual system. This centralization comes along with the corresponding capability to move the eyes to reposition the fovea continuously. Past research on visual perception was mainly concerned with foveal vision while the observers kept their eyes stationary. Research on the role of eye movements in visual perception emphasized their negative aspects, for example, the active suppression of vision before and during the execution of saccades. But is the only benefit of our precise eye movement system to provide high acuity of the small foveal region, at the cost of retinal blur during their execution? In this review, I will compare human visual perception with and without saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements to emphasize different aspects and functions of eye movements. I will show that the interaction between eye movements and visual perception is optimized for the active sampling of information across the visual field and for the calibration of different parts of the visual field. The movements of our eyes and visual information uptake are intricately intertwined. The two processes interact to enable an optimal perception of the world, one that we cannot fully grasp by doing experiments where observers are fixating a small spot on a display.

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Contrast sensitivity for oscillating sine wave gratings during ocular fixation and pursuit

Cited by 25 publications

References 17 publications

Temporal contrast sensitivity during smooth pursuit eye movements

Temporal contrast sensitivity during smooth pursuit eye movements

Head-Eye Coordination at a Microscopic Scale

The Interaction Between Vision and Eye Movements

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