title: Mechanisms of recognition of the outlines of "vanishing" optotypes.
abstract: The aim of the present work was to study the interaction between the optical properties of images of " disappearing" optotypes and their recognition thresholds. The "disappearing" optotypes were figures with complex outlines and had a unique property - they were close to the threshold of recognition and observation, which increases the accuracy of measurement of visual acuity and the subjects' attention to them. The recognition distances of "disappearing" optotypes were measured. A relationship was found between the recognition distance of "disappearing" optotypes and different optical density profiles on the one hand and the spatial and spatial frequency characteristics of the stimuli on the other. The decisive factor determining the threshold of recognition of optotypes in spatial frequency terms is its spatial frequency spectrum; that in spatial terms is the width of the black/white pair or black-white triad in the complex outline. Regardless of the shape of the optotype, one of the most important limiting factors was the concordance of this test with the scattering function of the subject's eye optics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Military Medical Academy, 6 Academician Lebedev Street, 194044 St. Petersburg, Russia.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Koskin
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Boiko
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Sobolev
authors.forename: Yu E
authors.initials: YE
authors.lastname: Shelepin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*