Anomalous contrast as an adaptive violation of the Talbot-Plateau law

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Greene, Ernest, Morrison, Jack
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Greene, Ernest
Morrison, Jack
author_facet Greene, Ernest
Morrison, Jack
contents Purpose: To better understand anomalous contrast mechanisms that allow flicker-fused stimuli to be visible even when they provide the same average luminance as background. Method: Stimulus flicker was used to elicit differential activation of ON and OFF retinal channels at frequencies above the flicker-fusion threshold. Providing balanced light energy to ON and OFF channels will normally cause the stimulus to vanish into the background. Results: We used ultra-brief bright pulses, combined with ultra-long dark pulses, to elicit "anomalous contrast" that rendered the stimulus visible, even though it had the same average luminance as the background. The duration and intensity of flicker components were varied to gain insight into the conditions that would elicit this effect. Conclusions: Anomalous contrast displays violated the Talbot-Plateau law, but in doing so, provided an adaptive way to register and signal contours that matched background luminance. These findings contribute additional details about this visual adaptation, and we discuss how the retinal circuitry provides for stimulus visibility.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_04139
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalous contrast as an adaptive violation of the Talbot-Plateau law
Greene, Ernest
Morrison, Jack
Neurons and Cognition
Purpose: To better understand anomalous contrast mechanisms that allow flicker-fused stimuli to be visible even when they provide the same average luminance as background. Method: Stimulus flicker was used to elicit differential activation of ON and OFF retinal channels at frequencies above the flicker-fusion threshold. Providing balanced light energy to ON and OFF channels will normally cause the stimulus to vanish into the background. Results: We used ultra-brief bright pulses, combined with ultra-long dark pulses, to elicit "anomalous contrast" that rendered the stimulus visible, even though it had the same average luminance as the background. The duration and intensity of flicker components were varied to gain insight into the conditions that would elicit this effect. Conclusions: Anomalous contrast displays violated the Talbot-Plateau law, but in doing so, provided an adaptive way to register and signal contours that matched background luminance. These findings contribute additional details about this visual adaptation, and we discuss how the retinal circuitry provides for stimulus visibility.
title Anomalous contrast as an adaptive violation of the Talbot-Plateau law
topic Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04139