Biomaterial Database

Visual suppression and its effect upon color and luminance sensitivity. 1994

T L Ooi, and M S Loop

Department of Physiological Optics, School of Optometry/Medical Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham 35294.

Psychophysical increment thresholds were compared for periods of phenomenological dominance or suppression produced by different stimulation of the two eyes. Three experimental procedures were used; binocular rivalry, permanent suppression and flash suppression. The amount of suppression produced by each procedure was evaluated under conditions intended to accentuate color or luminance system contribution to the detection of a spectral flash. All three procedures resulted in a different pattern of color and luminance suppression. Binocular rivalry suppressed color sensitivity more than luminance and within color, blue (439 nm) sensitivity was more suppressed than red (613 nm). Permanent suppression resulted in a similar pattern of suppression but only blue color sensitivity was reliably more suppressed than luminance sensitivity. Flash suppression produced distinctly different results such that blue color sensitivity was reliably less suppressed than luminance or red color sensitivity, which were not different from each other. Taken together these results provide clues as to where and when the physiological processes mediating visual suppression may be found in the nervous system.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008027	Light	That portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared range.	Light, Visible,Photoradiation,Radiation, Visible,Visible Radiation,Photoradiations,Radiations, Visible,Visible Light,Visible Radiations
D008297	Male		Males
D010775	Photic Stimulation	Investigative technique commonly used during ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY in which a series of bright light flashes or visual patterns are used to elicit brain activity.	Stimulation, Photic,Visual Stimulation,Photic Stimulations,Stimulation, Visual,Stimulations, Photic,Stimulations, Visual,Visual Stimulations
D011601	Psychophysics	The science dealing with the correlation of the physical characteristics of a stimulus, e.g., frequency or intensity, with the response to the stimulus, in order to assess the psychologic factors involved in the relationship.	Psychophysic
D003118	Color Perception	Mental processing of chromatic signals (COLOR VISION) from the eye by the VISUAL CORTEX where they are converted into symbolic representations. Color perception involves numerous neurons, and is influenced not only by the distribution of wavelengths from the viewed object, but also by its background color and brightness contrast at its boundary.	Color Perceptions,Perception, Color,Perceptions, Color
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012684	Sensory Thresholds	The minimum amount of stimulus energy necessary to elicit a sensory response.	Sensory Threshold,Threshold, Sensory,Thresholds, Sensory
D015348	Vision, Binocular	The blending of separate images seen by each eye into one composite image.	Binocular Vision
D015357	Vision Disparity	The difference between two images on the retina when looking at a visual stimulus. This occurs since the two retinas do not have the same view of the stimulus because of the location of our eyes. Thus the left eye does not get exactly the same view as the right eye.	Binocular Disparity,Fixation Disparity,Ocular Disparity,Parallax, Ocular,Retinal Disparity,Visual Disparity,Binocular Disparities,Disparities, Binocular,Disparities, Fixation,Disparities, Ocular,Disparities, Retinal,Disparities, Vision,Disparities, Visual,Disparity, Binocular,Disparity, Fixation,Disparity, Ocular,Disparity, Retinal,Disparity, Vision,Disparity, Visual,Fixation Disparities,Ocular Disparities,Ocular Parallax,Retinal Disparities,Vision Disparities,Visual Disparities