The independence of channels in human vision selective for direction of movement

Abstract

1. Human visual selectivity for direction of movement was determined using a subthreshold summation technique. 2. The threshold contrast for detecting a drifting sinusoidal grating was found to be independent of the contrast of an added subthreshold grating which moved in the opposite direction. 3. The detection threshold for a counterphase flickering grating is twice that for a moving grating, suggesting that the visual system analyses a counterphase grating as the sum of two half-contrast gratings which move in opposite directions. 4. Threshold for a counterphase grating may be linearly reduced by the addition of subthreshold background gratings drifting in either direction. Additivity between counterphase grating and moving background is complete. 5. After adaptation to a drifting grating, the behaviour of counterphase detection threshold as a function of the contrast of a moving subthreshold background depends upon the direction of background movement. When the background moves in a direction opposite that of the adaptation stimulus, complete linear additivity results. When the background moves in the same direction as the adapting grating, counterphase threshold is constant for low background contrasts, but drops linearly for higher background contrasts. 6. The results support the hypothesis that directionally selective channels in human vision are independent contrast detectors. Counterphase gratings are detected by one or the other of these direction-specific mechanisms, whichever is momentarily the more sensitive.