Kevin R. Brooks

Breaking camouflage: Binocular disparity reduces contrast masking in natural images

To study the effect of blur adaptation on accommodative variability, accommodative responses and pupil diameters in myopes (n = 22) and emmetropes (n = 19) were continuously measured before, during, and after exposure to defocus blur. Accommodative and pupillary response measurements were made by an autorefractor during a monocular reading exercise. The text was presented on a computer screen at 33 cm viewing distance with a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. After baseline testing and a 5-min rest, blur was induced by wearing either an optimally refractive lens, or a +1.0 DS or a +3.0 DS defocus lens. Responses were continuously measured during a 5-min period of adaptation. The lens was then removed, and measurements were again made during a 5-min post-adaptation period. After a second 5-min rest, a final post-adaptation period was measured. No significant change of baseline accommodative responses was found after the 5-min period of adaptation to the blurring lenses (p > 0.05). Compared to the pre-adaptation level, both refractive groups had similar and significant increases in accommodative variability right after blur adaptation to both defocus lenses. After the second rest period, the accommodative variability in both groups returned to the pre-adaptation level. The results indicate that blur adaptation has a short-term effect on the accommodative system to elevate instability of the accommodative response. Mechanisms underlying the increase in accommodative variability by blur adaptation and possible influences of the accommodation stability on myopia development were discussed.

Speed can go up as well as down at low contrast : Implications for models of motion perception

It is well-known that reducing the contrast of a slow moving stimulus reduces its apparent speed. [Thompson, P. (1982). Perceived rate of movement depends on contrast. Vision Research, 22, 377-380.] report of this finding also suggested that at speeds above 8 cycles/s reducing contrast increased perceived speed. However in a later report, Stone and Thompson (1992), using a more rigorous, forced-choice procedure, failed to collect reliable data at these higher speeds. Here, we confirm that faster moving stimuli can appear to move faster than their true speed at low contrasts and we propose a physiologically plausible ratio model that unlike recent Bayesian models (e.g. Weiss, Y., Simoncelli, E. P., & Adelson, E. H. (2002). Motion illusions as optimal percepts. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 598-604) can account well for the results.

Interocular velocity difference contributes to stereomotion speed perception.

Two experiments are presented assessing the contributions of the rate of change of disparity (CD) and interocular velocity difference (IOVD) cues to stereomotion speed perception. Using a two-interval forced-choice paradigm, the perceived speed of directly approaching and receding stereomotion and of monocular lateral motion in random dot stereogram (RDS) targets was measured. Prior adaptation using dysjunctively moving random dot stimuli induced a velocity aftereffect (VAE). The degree of interocular correlation in the adapting images was manipulated to assess the effectiveness of each cue. While correlated adaptation involved a conventional RDS stimulus, containing both IOVD and CD cues, uncorrelated adaptation featured an independent dot array in each monocular half-image, and hence lacked a coherent disparity signal. Adaptation produced a larger VAE for stereomotion than for monocular lateral motion, implying effects at neural sites beyond that of binocular combination. For motion passing through the horopter, correlated and uncorrelated adaptation stimuli produced equivalent stereomotion VAEs. The possibility that these results were due to the adaptation of a CD mechanism through random matches in the uncorrelated stimulus was discounted in a control experiment. Here both simultaneous and sequential adaptation of left and right eyes produced similar stereomotion VAEs. Motion at uncrossed disparities was also affected by both correlated and uncorrelated adaptation stimuli, but showed a significantly greater VAE in response to the former. These results show that (1) there are two separate, specialised mechanisms for encoding stereomotion: one through IOVD, the other through CD; (2) the IOVD cue dominates the perception of stereomotion speed for stimuli passing through the horopter; and (3) at a disparity pedestal both the IOVD and the CD cues have a significant influence.

Stereomotion perception for a monocularly camouflaged stimulus

Under usual circumstances, motion in depth is associated with conventional stereomotion cues: a change in disparity and differences between object velocities in each monocular image. However, occasionally these cues are unavailable due to the fact that in one eye the object may be occluded by, or camouflaged against appropriately positioned binocular objects. We report two experiments concerned with stereomotion perception under conditions of monocular camouflage. In Experiment 1, the visible half-image of a monocularly camouflaged object translated laterally. In this binocular context, percepts of lateral motion and motion in depth were equally consistent with the stimulus. Subjects perceived an oblique trajectory of 3D motion, compared to the more direct 3D trajectory experienced for binocularly matched stimuli. In Experiment 2, the perceived velocity of stereomotion was assessed. Again, for the stimulus used in Experiment 1, perceived stereomotion speed was lower than that for matched stimuli. However, when additional background objects were present, tightening the ecological constraints, perceived stereomotion velocity was often equivalent to that for matched stimuli. These results demonstrate for the first time that the motion of a monocularly camouflaged object can result in the perception of stereomotion, and that the perceived trajectory and speed are influenced by the ecological constraints of binocular geometry.

Stereomotion speed perception: contributions from both changing disparity and interocular velocity difference over a range of relative disparities

The role of two binocular cues to motion in depth-changing disparity (CD) and interocular velocity difference (IOVD)- was investigated by measuring stereomotion speed discrimination and static disparity discrimination performance (stereoacuity). Speed discrimination thresholds were assessed both for random dot stereograms (RDS), and for their temporally uncorrelated equivalents, dynamic random dot stereograms (DRDS), at relative disparity pedestals of -19, 0, and +19 arcmin. While RDS stimuli contain both CD and IOVD cues, DRDS stimuli carry only CD information. On average, thresholds were a factor of 1.7 higher for DRDS than for RDS stimuli with no clear effect of relative disparity pedestal. Results were similar for approaching and receding targets. Variations in stimulus duration had no significant effect on thresholds, and there was no observed correlation between stimulus displacement and perceived speed, confirming that subjects responded to stimulus speed in each condition. Stereoacuity was equally good for our RDS and DRDS stimuli, showing that the difference in stereomotion speed discrimination performance for these stimuli was not due to any difference in the precision of the disparity cue. In addition, when we altered stereomotion stimulus trajectory by independently manipulating the speeds and directions of its monocular half-images, perceived stereomotion speed remained accurate. This finding is inconsistent with response strategies based on properties of either monocular half-image motion, or any ad hoc combination of the monocular speeds. We conclude that although subjects are able to discriminate stereomotion speed reliably on the basis of CD information alone, IOVD provides a precise additional cue to stereomotion speed perception.

Stereomotion speed perception is contrast dependent

The effect of contrast on the perception of stimulus speed for stereomotion and monocular lateral motion was investigated for successive matches in random-dot stimuli. The familiar ‘Thompson effect’—that a reduction in contrast leads to a reduction in perceived speed—was found in similar proportions for both binocular images moving in depth, and for monocular images translating laterally. This result is consistent with the idea that the monocular motion system has a significant input to the stereomotion system, and dominates the speed percept for approaching motion.

Perceived speed of motion in depth is reduced in the periphery

The perceived speed of motion in depth (MID) for a monocularly visible target was measured in central and peripheral vision using a 2AFC speed discrimination task. Only binocular cues to MID were available: changing disparity and interocular velocity difference (IOVD). Perceived speed for monocular lateral motion and perceived depth for static disparity were also assessed, again in both central and peripheral vision. The purpose of the experiment was to assess the relative contributions of changing disparity and IOVD cues to the perceived speed of stereomotion. Although peripheral stimuli appeared to lie at approximately the same depth as their central counterparts, their apparent speed was reduced. Monocular/lateral and binocular/MID speeds were reduced to a similar extent. It seems that reduced apparent monocular speed leads to reduced perceived MID speed, despite the fact that the disparity system appears to be unaffected. These results suggest that the IOVD cue makes a significant contribution to MID speed perception.

Human discrimination of visual direction of motion with and without smooth pursuit eye movements

It has long been known that ocular pursuit of a moving target has a major influence on its perceived speed (Aubert, 1886; Fleischl, 1882). However, little is known about the effect of smooth pursuit on the perception of target direction. Here we compare the precision of human visual-direction judgments under two oculomotor conditions (pursuit vs. fixation). We also examine the impact of stimulus duration (200 ms vs. ~800 ms) and absolute direction (cardinal vs. oblique). Our main finding is that direction discrimination thresholds in the fixation and pursuit conditions are indistinguishable. Furthermore, the two oculomotor conditions showed oblique effects of similar magnitudes. These data suggest that the neural direction signals supporting perception are the same with or without pursuit, despite remarkably different retinal stimulation. During fixation, the stimulus information is restricted to large, purely peripheral retinal motion, while during steady-state pursuit, the stimulus information consists of small, unreliable foveal retinal motion and a large efference-copy signal. A parsimonious explanation of our findings is that the signal limiting the precision of direction judgments is a neural estimate of target motion in head-centered (or world-centered) coordinates (i.e., a combined retinal and eye motion signal) as found in the medial superior temporal area (MST), and not simply an estimate of retinal motion as found in the middle temporal area (MT).

Monocular Motion Adaptation Affects the Perceived Trajectory of Stereomotion

Perceived stereomotion trajectory was measured before and after adaptation to lateral motion in the dominant or nondominant eye to assess the relative contributions of 2 cues: changing disparity and interocular velocity difference. Perceived speed for monocular lateral motion and perceived binocular visual direction (BVD) was also assessed. Unlike stereomotion trajectory perception, the BVD of static targets showed an ocular dominance bias, even without adaptation. Adaptation caused equivalent biases in perceived trajectory and monocular motion speed, without significantly affecting perceived BVD. Predictions from monocular motion data closely match trajectory perception data, unlike those from BVD sources. The results suggest that the interocular velocity differences make a significant contribution to stereomotion trajectory perception.

Individual differences in visual search: relationship to autistic traits, discrimination thresholds, and speed of processing

Enhanced visual search is widely reported in autism. Here we note a similar advantage for university students self-reporting higher levels of autism-like traits. Contrary to prevailing theories of autism, performance was not associated with perceptual-discrimination thresholds for the same stimuli, but was associated with inspection-time threshold—a measure of speed of perceptual processing. Enhanced visual search in autism may, therefore, at least partially be explained by faster speed of processing.