title: Peripheral spatial vision: limits imposed by optics, photoreceptors, and receptor pooling.
abstract: We examined the contribution of optical and photoreceptor properties as well as receptor pooling to eccentricity-dependent variations in spatial vision by comparing the performance of ideal observers with that of human observers. We measured contrast sensitivity functions in human observers and calculated such functions in ideal observers for retinal eccentricities of 0-40 deg. Comparisons of human and ideal performance in a variety of tasks reveal that many aspects of the variation in spatial vision with eccentricity can be understood from an analysis of the discrimination information available at the retinal ganglion cells.
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Banks
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Sekuler
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010786:Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields