Attenuation of Mach bands by adjacent stimuli

Pronounced bright and dark bands are seen at the bright and dark edges of half-shadows and similar distributions of illumination. These are the so-called Mach bands. A pair of vertical Mach bands was generated with a ramp pattern in the central strip of a horizontal tripartite oscilloscope display. This pattern consisted of two uniform fields (one of low luminance, one of high luminance) joined by a gradient of uniform slope. The upper and lower strips were uniform throughout. A coupled pair of pointers could be displayed in these two strips and adjusted by the observer to match the apparent location and width of either of the Mach bands in the central strip. Insertion of a vertical bar in the central strip nearby and on either side of the ramp attenuates the corresponding Mach band. The closer the bar is to the Mach band, the stronger the attenuation. The attenuation is nearly independent of the sign of the contrast of the bar, but it does depend upon the magnitude and sharpness of the contrast. Also, the attenuation is independent of the width of the bar; a narrow line is as effective as a broad bar of the same contrast. No net luminance change is required; a bipolar stimulus with equal parts above and below the mean is as effective as a monopolar stimulus. These results point to two competing physiological mechanisms with different spatial sensitivities--one that generates Mach bands and one that attenuates them.