Contour Adaptation

Flicker adaptation.
If you adapt to two squares, one black and one white, you can see two negative afterimages afterwards, They will be respectively white and black.
If you adapt to a square that flickers at 5-10Hz between black and white (on a grey surround), then afterwards there will be no visible afterimage.But there will be a patch of reduced sensitivity; a test patch will look reduced in apparent contrast.

Contour adaptation.
If you adapt to a flickering outline circle and then view a congruent low-contrast grey disk, the whole disk will be apparently halved in contrast; and may even become invisible. This suggests that brightness is coded at edges!
Contour adaptation does not work for colored patches, and it does not transfer from one eye to the other. This suggests that it is a low-level process in the Magnocellular pathways.

 There are 6 stars here, 3 light and 3 dark.  Fixate the red spot and adapt to the solid flickering stars (above) and flickering outlines (below).  All six stars reappear, but you see only four of them.  The outlines are as effective adaptors as the solid flickering stars.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/fourdisk.mov[/quicktime]

As in the previous movie, adapting to the flickering outline circles makes the test disks disappear from view. Adapting circles flicker at 1, 2, and 4 Hz, and the rotating dashed circle is also an effective adaptor; clearly flicker rate is not crucial.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/StarBurst1.mov[/quicktime]

 Selective adaptation.  Fixate each red spot in turn (4 experiments).  Adapting to the external outlines (top row) makes these outlines disappear, leaving only disembodied quadrants.  Adapting to the internal crosses (bottom row) makes each star look like a uniform gray.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/Kanisza.mov[/quicktime]

Left: You can’t adapt out the subjective contours of a Kanisza square.  But right, you can adapt out the objective L-shaped corners: now the subjective square looks like a foggy blob or luminous haze.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/7_PyramidAdapt3.mov[/quicktime]

While focusing on the central spot, view the flickering contours that superimpose onto the edges of the dark (left) and light (right) pyramids. During the test period, the pyramids now appear to have the same luminance as the background. Copies if the central dark and light square are presented above the pyramids for the sake of comparison.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/5_HalfMoon.mov[/quicktime]

First adapt to the flicker of the semicircle, presented superimposed on the left edge of the disk. Following flicker adaptation, not only has the left edge of the disk disappeared, but also a brightness gradient is apparent, making the disk appear like a half moon. In the absence of edge information on the left half of the disk, the brain appears to interpolate the brightness levels from the unadapted right edge to the background level.

[quicktime width=”600″ height=”400″]http://anstislab.ucsd.edu/files/2012/11/9_PopoutDisk.mov[/quicktime]

This demonstration shows a test field of seven randomly arranged low-contrast annuli.  All the annuli have the same size and shape so none of them pops out.  But now adapt to the set of flickering circles, maintaining strict fixation on the small white square.  When the test annuli re-appear, you will notice that one of them seems to have turned into a solid disk, which pops-out from the background annuli.

A flickering outline contour is a much more effective adaptor than a flickering blurred surface. Gaze at the center spot and view the flickering adapting stimuli, on the left an outline ring and on the right a blurred surface. Following adaptation, the left test disk disappears while the right disk remains visible.  Adapting to the flickering contour leads to contour erasure, while adapting to the surface does not.  Conclusion:  Brightness is coded at edges. …..IF you adapt to the outline circle on the left, and the co

mplete blurred disk on the right, only the former has an aftereffect.  Contours rule!

 

 

An adapting half-circle makes the test disk look graded…

 

Incomplete contour erasure can affect the perceived brightness of a uniformly filled light grey disk.  First adapt to the flicker of the semicircle, presented superimposed on the left edge of the disk. Following flicker adaptation, not only has the left edge of the disk disappeared, but also a brightness gradient is apparent, making the disk appear like a half moon. In the absence of edge information on the left half of the disk, the brain appears to interpolate the brightness levels from the unadapted right edge to the background level.Incomplete contour erasure can affect the perceived brightness of a uniformly filled light grey disk.  First adapt to the flicker of the semicircle, presented superimposed on the left edge of the disk. Following flicker adaptation, not only has the left edge of the disk disappeared, but also a brightness gradient is apparent, making the disk appear like a half moon. In the absence of edge information on the left half of the disk, the brain appears to interpolate the brightness levels from the unadapted right edge to the background level.