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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
Spatial frequency and visual persistence: cortical reset
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1364, USA. gfrancis@psych.purdue.edu
Abstract:
Psychophysical studies show that the duration of visual persistence increases with spatial frequency of gratings. Previous theories ascribe this finding to differences between the spatial and temporal properties of sustained and transient pathways. This paper proposes an alternative account that explains persistence as a side-effect of excitatory feedback in neural circuits for contour extraction. Mechanisms to break excitatory feedback include inhibitory reset signals at stimulus offset. Simulations demonstrate how gratings with lower spatial frequency generate stronger inhibitory reset signals, thereby resulting in shorter persistence for lower spatial frequencies. Additional simulations account for interactions of spatial frequency with stimulus duration, effects of adaptation, and properties of residual traces, as opposed to visual persistence.
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