Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T09:28:58.737Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spatial summation in blindsight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Petra Stoerig
Petra Stoerig
Affiliation:
Institut für Medizinische Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Goethestrasse 31, D-80336 München, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Spatial summation curves were determined in the circumscribed visual-field defects of five patients with blindsight. Under light-adapted conditions that favor the color-opponent system, increment thresholds for white and red targets presented on a white background were measured as a function of stimulus size which ranged from 9–110 min arc. In both normal and defective hemifields, summation was linear for the red stimuli. In contrast, the curves measured with the white stimuli showed some nonlinearity in the normal hemifield, and a pronounced eccentricity-dependent notch in the field defect. The results indicate that the neurons mediating sensitivity differ in their summation properties for wavelength and intensity information.

Keywords

Spatial summationWavelength and intensityBlindsightExtra-geniculo-striate cortical systemColor-opponent cells
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 10 , Issue 6 , November 1993 , pp. 1141 - 1149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bender, M.B. & Krieger, H.P. (1951). Visual function in perimetrically blind fields. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Chicago) 65, 72–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blythe, I.M., Kennard, C. & Ruddock, K.H. (1987). Residual vision in patients with retrogeniculate lesions of the visual pathways. Brain 110, 887–905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowey, A., Stoerig, P. & Perry, V.H. (1989). Transneuronal retrograde degeneration in the retina of macaque monkeys: Selective loss of Pβ cells. Neuroscience 29, 65–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowey, A. & Stoerig, P. (1991). The neurobiology of blindsight. Trends in Neuroscience 14, 140–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crook, J.M., Lange-Malecki, B., Lee, B.B. & Valberg, A. (1988). Visual resolution of macaque retinal ganglion cells. Journal of Physiology 396, 205–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Monasterio, F.M. (1978). Center and surround mechanisms of opponent-color x and y ganglion cells of retina of macaques. Journal of Neurophysiology 41, 1418–1434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Monasterio, F.M. & Gouras, P. (1975). Functional properties of ganglion cells in the rhesus monkey retina. Journal of Neurophysiology 41, 167–195.Google Scholar
De Valois, R.L. (1972). Processing of intensity and wavelength information by the visual system. Investigative Ophthalmology 11, 417–427.Google ScholarPubMed
De Valois, R.L., Snodderly, D.M., Yund, E.W. & Hepler, N.K. (1977). Responses of macaque lateral geniculate cells to luminance and color figures. Sensory Processes 1, 244–259.Google ScholarPubMed
Fendrich, R., Wessinger, C.M. & Gazzaniga, M.S. (1992). Residual vision in a scotoma: Implications for blindsight. Science 258, 1489–1491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King-Smith, P.E. & Garden, D. (1976). Luminance and colour-opponent contributions to visual detection and adaptation and to temporal and spatial integration. Journal of the Optical Society of America 66, 709–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisvárday, Z.F., Cowey, A., Stoerig, P. & Somogyi, P. (1991). Direct and indirect retinal input into degenerated dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus after striate cortical removal in monkey: Implications for residual vision. Experimental Brain Research 86, 271–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mihailovic, L.T., Dragoslava, C. & Dekleva, N. (1971). Changes in the number of neurons and glial cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the monkey during retrograde cell degeneration. Journal of Comparative Neurology 142, 223–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ransom-Hogg, A. & Spillmann, L. (1980). Perceptive-field size in fovea and periphery of the light- and dark-adapted retina. Vision Research 20, 221–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robson, J.G. & Graham, N. (1981). Probability summation and regional variation in contrast sensitivity across the visual field. Vision Research 21, 409–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ronchi, L. & Fidanzati, G. (1972). Changes of psychophysical organization across the light-adapted retina. Journal of the Optical Society of America 62, 912–915.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sloan, L.L. (1971). The Tübinger perimeter of Harms and Aulhorn: Recommended procedures and supplementary equipment. Archives of Ophthalmology 86, 612–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snelgar, R.S., Foster, D.H. & Scase, M.O. (1987). Isolation of opponent-colour mechanisms at increment threshold. Vision Research 27, 1017–1027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperling, H.G. & Harwerth, R.S. (1971). Red-green cone interactions in the increment-threshold spectral sensitivity of primates. Science 172, 180–184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P. (1987). Chromaticity and achromaticity. Evidence for a functional differentiation in visual field defects. Brain 110, 869–886.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1989 a). Spectral sensitivity in blindsight. Nature (London) 342, 916–918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1989 b). Residual target detection as a function of stimulus size. Brain 112, 1123–1139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1991). Increment-threshold spectral sensitivity in blindsight. Evidence for colour opponency. Brain 114, 1487–1512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1992). Wavelength discrimination in blindsight. Brain 115, 425–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoerig, P., Cowey, A. & Bannister, M. (1991). Retinal ganglion cells that project to the pulvinar nucleus in macaque monkeys. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 17 / 1, 711.Google Scholar
Stoerig, P. & Zrenner, E. (1987). A pattern-ERG study of transneuronal retrograde degeneration in the human retina after a post-geniculate lesion. In Seeing Contour and Colour, ed. Kulikowski, J. J., Dickinson, C.M. & Murray, I.J., pp. 553–556. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Troscianko, T. (1982). A given visual-field location has a wide range of perceptive-field sizes. Vision Research 22, 1363–1369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Buren, J.M. (1963). Trans-synaptic retrograde degeneration in the visual system of primates. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 26, 402–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiskrantz, L., Warrington, E.K., Sanders, M.D. & Marshall, J. (1974). Visual capacity in the hemianopic field following a restricted occipital ablation. Brain 97, 709–728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiskrantz, L. (1986). Blindsight: A Case Study and Implications. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weiskrantz, L., Harlow, A. & Barbur, J.L. (1991). Factors affecting visual sensitivity in a hemianopic subject. Brain 114, 2269–2282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weller, R.E. & Kaas, J.H. (1989). Parameters affecting the loss of ganglion cells of the retina following ablations of striate cortex in primates. Visual Neuroscience 3, 327–342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiesel, T.N. & Hubel, D.H. (1966). Spatial and chromatic interactions in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. Journal of Neurophysiology 29, 1115–1156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, M.E. (1967). Spatial and temporal summation in impaired regions of the visual field. Journal of Physiology (London) 189, 189–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed