Title Information
Title
The effect of natural vision on perception and V1 neural activity
Name: Personal
Name Part
Niemeyer, James Edward
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2015
Physical Description
Extent
xv, 113 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note
Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2015)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Paradiso, Michael
Role
Role Term: Text
Director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Berson, David
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Sheinberg, David
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Mazer, James
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Neuroscience
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
A vast majority of visual system studies are conducted in the absence of eye movements and complex scenes. The purpose of simplifying these experiments is to reduce the number of variables that can influence our results; however, this means that most of our knowledge of visual function does not speak directly to how the visual system operates in normal, real-world, conditions that involve eye movements and complex images. Thus, the field of neuroscience has much to learn about the process of vision in experimental paradigms that mimic more naturalistic vision. Here I present research showing the effects of adding naturalness to experiments of primary visual cortical function in Macaque monkeys as well as perceptual ability of these animals, measured as contrast sensitivity. The main experimental paradigm showed that contrast sensitivity and neuronal responses in V1 are both affected by the inclusion of natural scene backgrounds and eye movements in a 2AFC detection task. These effects were spatial frequency-specific. Follow-up experiments determined that this spatial frequency-specificity was due to the visual contents of the natural scene background used in the study. The conclusion drawn from this research is that rapid-forming adaptation in V1 can occur within a 400ms fixation period, carry across a 7-degree saccadic eye movement, and affect neuronal responses and perceptual sensitivity to stimuli immediately following the saccade. Thus, in real-world vision, rapid adaptation effects are likely occurring during every fixation and then exerting influence on visual function at the following fixation. This novel finding has implications for the way visual neuronal function is studied in the lab setting, as well as the manner in which contrast sensitivity functions are viewed in clinical settings.
Subject
Topic
V1
Subject
Topic
primary visual cortex
Subject
Topic
contrast sensitivity
Subject
Topic
natural vision
Subject
Topic
natural scenes
Subject
Topic
rapid adaptation
Subject
Topic
adaptation
Subject
Topic
saccade
Subject
Topic
contrast adaptation
Subject
Topic
offset response
Subject
Topic
offset transient
Subject
Topic
after discharge
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/877053")
Topic
Contrast sensitivity (Vision)
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1103020")
Topic
Saccadic eye movements
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20150601
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Language Term: Text
English
Identifier: DOI
10.7301/Z0T15211
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations