Multiple gain control processes in contrast–contrast phenomena

Abstract

Spatial interactions among orientation-tuned gain control processes are presumed to mediate center-surround contrast-contrast phenomena. In this paper, we assess contributions of gain control processes that pool over orientation. We measured the apparent contrast of a luminance-modulated center disk embedded in various modulated surrounds. In all conditions, observers compared the apparent contrast of the test center to an identically modulated disk with no surround. When center and surround are simple, vertical sinusoids and presented in phase, suppression depends upon surround contrast and is marked at high contrasts. When components are presented 180 degrees out of phase, no suppression occurs at any contrast. When a horizontal component is added to the surround, much less suppression occurs. However, strong suppression is reinstated when both center and surround are plaids. Neither of the latter two effects are phase dependent. We suggest that two different sources of gain control are revealed by the simple sinusoidal and the plaid stimuli. One is orientation tuned and phase-dependent. The other pools over all orientations and includes neurons tuned to multiple phases.

Electrophysiological indices of surround suppression in humans

“…6A (right). Moreover, while the psychophysical effect of spatial phase is in line with other studies that, similar to ours, imposed no gap between the foreground and surround stimuli (Ejima and Takahashi 1985;Olzak and Laurinen 1999), this effect is absent in studies where there is a gap (Cannon and Fullenkamp 1991;Petrov and McKee 2006;Xing and Heeger 2001), suggesting the potential influence of a brightness induction effect at the border (see Snowden and Hammett 1998).…”

Targets but not flankers are suppressed in crowding as revealed by EEG frequency tagging

“…For example, pattern regularity leads to more crowding in behavioral paradigms (Manassi et al, 2012;Sayim et al, 2008) and attenuated BOLD responses to the target (Joo et al, 2012). Similarly, surround suppression is strongest, behaviorally and physiologically, when the surround is similar to the target by orientation, phase and spatial frequency (Cavanaugh et al, 2002;Olzak and Laurinen, 1999;Saarela and Herzog, 2008;Williams et al, 2003).…”

Multiple components of surround modulation in primary visual cortex: Multiple neural circuits with multiple functions?

“…It is our opinion that these authors' argument is only partly valid, since surround suppression does occur at the fovea when the contrast of the target is above threshold, i.e. when suppression is measured either using supra-threshold contrast matching (Cannon & Fullenkamp, 1991, 1993; Chubb, Sperling, & Solomon, 1989; Ejima & Takahashi, 1985; Kilpeläinen, Donner, & Laurinen, 2007; Nurminen, Peromaa, & Laurinen, 2010; Olzak & Laurinen, 1999; Snowden & Hammett, 1998; Solomon, Sperling, & Chubb, 1993; Xing & Heeger, 2000, 2001) or detection on a pedestal (Chen & Tyler, 2002; Snowden & Hammett, 1998; Yu & Levi, 1997) tasks. Moreover, the argument that the spatial extent of surround modulation does not scale with spatial frequency is controversial, because the spatial extent of near-surround modulation does scale at supra-threshold contrast, at least up to 4.8 cycles surround width (Cannon & Fullenkamp, 1991).…”

“…Albright & Stoner, 2002; Allman, Miezin, & Mc Guinness, 1985; Born & Bradley, 2005; Desimone & Schein, 1987; Pollen et al, 2002) and across different modalities, including the auditory (Sutter et al, 1999), somatosensory (Sachdev, Krause, & Mazer, 2012; Vega-Bermudez & Johnson, 1999) and olfactory (Olsen & Wilson, 2008) systems. In human visual perception, many studies have demonstrated that spatial context alters the perception of a visual target (Cannon & Fullenkamp, 1991; Chubb, Sperling, & Solomon, 1989; Ejima & Takahashi, 1985; Meese & Hess, 2004; Meese et al, 2007; Nurminen et al, 2009; Olzak & Laurinen, 1999; Snowden & Hammett, 1998). The conservation across such a wide range of species, cortical areas and sensory modalities suggests that surround modulation plays a fundamental role in sensory processing.…”