Temporal frequency filters in the human peripheral visual field

Abstract

The temporal filtering properties of the human peripheral field were investigated by means of measuring: (1) modulation transfer functions for a range of spatial frequencies at four visual field locations (0, 10, 30 and 50 degrees), (2) the contrast of a masking stimulus required to extinguish the visibility of just suprathreshold probes. Results suggest that the number of temporal filters governing detection threshold is dependent upon both eccentricity and spatial frequency. For near-foveal viewing three temporal filters were found (one low-pass and two band-pass), whereas at far eccentricities only one was found (band-pass). A similar result was obtained by modeling the modulation transfer function by simply scaling the sensitivities of three independently derived filters. Our data suggest that (1) changes in the modulation transfer function with respect to spatial frequency and eccentricity can be adequately explained by the changes in sensitivity of a small number of spatio-temporal separable filters; (2) the peripheral field is not merely a coarser version of the fovea but has qualitative differences which may be thought to emphasize the transient properties of the stimulus.