Linked Life Data

7718504

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/7718504

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
1
pubmed:dateCreated
1995-5-23
pubmed:abstractText
Many psychophysical studies of various visual tasks show that performance is generally better for binocular than for monocular observation. To investigate the physiological basis of this binocular advantage, we have recorded, under monocular and binocular stimulation, contrast response functions for single cells in the striate cortex of anesthetized and paralyzed cats. We applied receiver operating characteristic analysis to our data to obtain monocular and binocular neurometric functions for each cell. A contrast threshold and a slope were extracted from each neurometric function and were compared for monocular and binocular stimulation. We found that contrast thresholds and slopes varied from cell to cell but, in general, binocular contrast thresholds were lower, and binocular slopes were steeper, than their monocular counterparts. The binocular advantage ratio, the ratio of monocular to binocular thresholds for individual cells, was, on average, slightly higher than the typical ratios reported in human psychophysics. No single rule appeared to account for the various degrees of binocular summation seen in individual cells. We also found that the proportion of cells likely to contribute to contrast detection increased with stimulus contrast. Less contrast was required under binocular than under monocular stimulation to obtain the same proportion of cells that contribute to contrast detection. Based on these results, we suggest that behavioral contrast detection is carried out by a small proportion of cells that are relatively sensitive to near-threshold contrasts. Contrast sensitivity functions (CSFs) for the cell population, estimated from this hypothesis, agree well with behavioral data in both the shape of the CSF and the ratio of binocular to monocular sensitivities. We conclude that binocular summation in behavioral contrast detection may be attributed to the binocular superiority in contrast sensitivity of a small proportion of cells which are responsible for threshold contrast detection.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:issn
0952-5238
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
12
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
77-93
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:articleTitle
Contrast coding by cells in the cat's striate cortex: monocular vs. binocular detection.
pubmed:affiliation
School of Optometry, University of California at Berkeley.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.