Suprathreshold temporal-frequency discrimination in the fovea and the periphery.
To address the question of whether temporal-frequency information in the fovea and the periphery is processed in fundamentally different ways we measured temporal-frequency-discrimination thresholds for spatiotemporally narrow-band stimuli presented at suprathreshold contrast. Temporal-frequency-discrimination thresholds are similar (within a factor of 2) at the fovea and at 30 degrees in the periphery. We use a line-element approach and three spatiotemporally separable temporal mechanisms to model foveal and peripheral data with the same degree of fidelity. These findings suggest that not only are the front-end temporal mechanisms in the fovea and periphery likely to be similar but also the way in which their outputs are combined at more central sites is the same.
Waugh
S J
SJ
McGill Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Hess
R F
RF
D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D014796:Visual Perception