title: Discrimination and identification of luminance contrast stimuli.
abstract: The goal of this study was to compare luminance contrast discrimination and polarity identification in the inferred Parvocellular (PC-) and Magnocellular (MC-) pathways. The position identification task tested ability to locate a contrast change within a stimulus. The polarity identification task tested ability to classify the contrast change as either brighter or darker. Three paradigms were employed to find these thresholds for the inferred MC- and PC-pathways: Pulsed-Pedestal, Steady-Pedestal and Pedestal-Delta-Pedestal. Position and polarity identification thresholds were the same for the Pulsed-Pedestal stimuli (inferred PC-pathway). The position identification thresholds were lower than the polarity identification thresholds for Steady-Pedestal stimuli (inferred MC-pathway). The position identification thresholds were lower than the polarity identification thresholds for Pedestal-Delta-Pedestal stimuli when the Delta-Pedestal contrast steps were sub-threshold or close to threshold. When the contrast steps were larger, position identification and polarity identification thresholds were similar for the Pedestal-Delta-Pedestal stimuli. Comparisons were also made between position identification and polarity identification thresholds for a short and a long stimulus presentation. There were no systematic differences dependent on presentation duration.
authors.affiliation: Visual Science Laboratories, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. estefank@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Emily S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Kachinsky
authors.forename: Vivianne C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pokorny
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*