title: Is improved contrast sensitivity a natural consequence of visual training?
abstract: Many studies have shown that training and testing conditions modulate specificity of visual learning to trained stimuli and tasks. In visually impaired populations, generalizability of visual learning to untrained stimuli/tasks is almost always reported, with contrast sensitivity (CS) featuring prominently among these collaterally-improved functions. To understand factors underlying this difference, we measured CS for direction and orientation discrimination in the visual periphery of three groups of visually-intact subjects. Group 1 trained on an orientation discrimination task with static Gabors whose luminance contrast was decreased as performance improved. Group 2 trained on a global direction discrimination task using high-contrast random dot stimuli previously used to recover motion perception in cortically blind patients. Group 3 underwent no training. Both forms of training improved CS with some degree of specificity for basic attributes of the trained stimulus/task. Group 1's largest enhancement was in CS around the trained spatial/temporal frequencies; similarly, Group 2's largest improvements occurred in CS for discriminating moving and flickering stimuli. Group 3 saw no significant CS changes. These results indicate that CS improvements may be a natural consequence of multiple forms of visual training in visually intact humans, albeit with some specificity to the trained visual domain(s).
authors: Aaron
authors: A
authors: Levi
authors: Danielle
authors: D
authors: Shaked
authors: Duje
authors: D
authors: Tadin
authors: Krystel R
authors: KR
authors: Huxlin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult