The contrast dependence of spatial frequency channel interactions

Interactions between spatial frequency channels were tested in two ways: we measured the discriminability by the visual system between two compound spatial-frequency gratings, of components with spatial frequencies in the ratio 1:3, when the difference between the two gratings was an increase (or decrease) in contrast of both components of the compound grating (contrast discrimination), or when the difference between the two gratings was an increase in contrast of one component and a decrease in contrast of the other component (pattern discrimination). We found that the contrast: pattern discriminability ratio differs significantly from unity in most conditions. Furthermore, this ratio is generally greater when the components of the grating are in peaks-add relative phase than when in peaks-subtract phase. On the other hand, the ratio was close to unity for grating components of spatial frequencies 1 and 9 cycles/deg. These results suggest that the human visual system contains spatial frequency channels with bandwidths of between 1.6 and 3.2 octaves and that these relatively broad channels have peaks-add spatial profiles. The channels appear linear at intermediate contrasts and spatial frequencies, but super-linear at high spatial frequencies and contrasts. Contrast and spatial frequency may be interchangeable for the determination of the linearity of the visual system.