Abstract
Recent interest in the parvocellular and magnocellular pathways within the primate visual system has a dual origin. Firstly, the physiology of these systems is of intrinsic interest. Some features appear unique to the primate, and are of relevance to wiring diagrams emerging from primate retinal anatomy. Secondly, there is abundant psychophysical evidence for the existence of chromatic and achromatic channels within the human visual system. The relationship of different cell types and systems to these channels has been controversial (see Shapley and Perry, 1986; Kaplan et al., 1990 for review). Although the parvocellular and magnocellular systems have been proposed as physiological substrates for the chromatic and achromatic channels (Crook et al, 1987; Lee et al, 1988; Lee et al., 1989a; Kaiser et al., 1990), there is evidence contrary to this viewpoint (e.g., Schiller et al., 1990). In this paper, I shall review physiological evidence relevant to certain standard psychophysical paradigms and consider some of the problems associated with specifying the substrates of performance from physiological data.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Boynton, R.M., 1978, Ten years of research with the minimally distinct border, in “Visual Psychophysics and Physiology” J.C. Armington, J. Krauskopf and B.R. Wooten, p. 193, Academic Press, London.
Gouras, P. and Zrenner, E., 1979, Enhancement of luminance flicker by color-opponent mechanisms. Science, 205: 587.
Ingling, C.R. and Martinez, E., 1983, The spatio-chromatic signal of the r—g channel, in “Colour Vision; physiology and psychophysics” J. Mollon and L.T. Sharpe ed., Academic Press, London.
Kaiser, P.K., Lee, B.B., Martin P.R. and Valberg, A., 1990, The physiological basis of the minimally distinct border demonstrated in the ganglion cells of the macaque retina, J. Physiol., 422; 153.
Kaplan, E., Lee, B.B. and Shapley, R.M., 1990, New Views of primate retinal function, Progress in Retinal Research, In Press.
Kaplan, E. and Shapley, R., 1986, The primate retina contains two types of ganglion cells with high and low contrast sensitivity, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 83; 2755.
Kelly, D.H. and van Norren, D., 1977, Two-band model of heterochromatic flicker, J. Opt. Soc. Am., 67; 1081.
Lee, B.B., Martin, P.R. and Valberg, A., 1988, The physiological basis of heterochromatic flicker photometry demonstrated in the ganglion cells of the macaque retina, J. Physiol., 404; 323.
Lee, B.B., Martin, P.R. and Valberg, A., 1989a, Sensitivity of macaque ganglion cells to lumi-nance and chromatic flicker, J. Physiol., 414; 223.
Lee, B.B., Martin, P.R. and Valberg, A., 1989c, A non-linearity summation of M— and L—cone inputs to phasic retinal ganglion cells of the macaque, J. Neuroscience, 9; 1433.
Lee, B.B., Martin, P.R. and Valberg, A., 1989b, Amplitude and phase of responses of macaque ganglion cells to flickering stimuli, J. Physiol., 414; 245.
Lee, B.B., Pokorny, J., Smith, V.C., Martin, P.R. and Valberg, A., 1990, Luminance and chromatic modulation sensitivity of macaque. ganglion cells and human observers, J. Opt. Soc. Am A, In press
Lindsey, D.T., Pokorny, J., and Smith, V.C., 1986, Phase-dependent sensitivity to heterochromatic flicker, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 3; 921.
Lindsey, D.T. and Teller, D.Y., 1989, Influence of variations of edge blur on minimally distinct border judgements; a theoretical and empirical investigation, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 6; 446.
Poirson, A.B., Wandell, B.A., Varner, D.C. and Brainard, D.H., 1990, Surface characterizations of color thresholds, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 7; 783.
Schiller, P.H., Logothetis, N.K. and Charles, E.R., 1990, Functions of the colour-opponent and broad-band channels of the visual system, Nature, 343; 68.
Smith, V.C., Lee, B.B., Pokorny, J., Martin P.R. and Valberg, A., 1990, Responses of phasic ganglion cells of the macaque retina on changing the relative phase of two flickering lights. Submitted.
Swanson, W.H., Ueno, T., Smith, V.C. and Pokorny, J., 1987, Temporal modulation sensitivity and pulse-detection thresholds for chromatic and luminance perturbations, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4; 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lee, B.B. (1991). On the Relation between Cellular Sensitivity and Psychophysical Detection. In: Valberg, A., Lee, B.B. (eds) From Pigments to Perception. NATO ASI Series, vol 203. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3718-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3718-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6654-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3718-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive