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The Measurement and Treatment of Suppression in Amblyopia
Published on: December 14, 2012
Mapping a field of suppression surrounding visual stimuli
1Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Research Centre and School of Psychology (MG), Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia. m.chappell@griffith.edu.au
Journal of Vision
|November 14, 2007
Summary
Visual stimuli suppress perceived contrast. Moving stimuli cause greater suppression than stationary ones, confirming neural inhibition but not excitation in visual perception models.
Area of Science:
- Visual perception
- Neuroscience
- Psychophysics
Background:
- Contrast perception is fundamental to visual processing.
- Models of motion perception often propose neural excitation and inhibition zones around stimuli.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how visual stimuli affect perceived contrast.
- To test the assumptions of neural excitation and inhibition in motion perception models.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Measured the perceived brightness of a small flash near moving and stationary visual stimuli.
- Experiment 2: Assessed the perceived darkness of a flash with an inducing stimulus of varying polarity.
- Mapped the spatial extent of contrast suppression.
Main Results:
- A small flash's brightness was significantly suppressed near moving stimuli (d up to 6) compared to stationary ones.
- Suppression extended further around moving stimuli (10.5 degrees) than stationary ones (3.5 degrees).
- Dark flashes appeared less dark when presented with an inducing stimulus, indicating contrast suppression.
Conclusions:
- Perceived contrast is suppressed by inducing stimuli of lesser contrast, and often lesser luminance.
- Findings support the inhibitory, but not the excitatory, components of current motion perception models.
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