Temporal-Contrast Discrimination and its Neural Correlates

Reported differences in neuronal contrast processing between the parallel magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) visual pathways invite the hypothesis that contrast discrimination in the human visual system is more sensitive at low contrasts and less sensitive at high contrasts, for stimuli modulated at high compared with low temporal frequencies. In the present study, an edgeless temporally modulated uniform field was selected as the stimulus for psychophysical contrast discrimination, and contrast-increment thresholds for pedestal contrasts ranging from 5.5% to 78.2% were determined with a temporal two-alternative forced-choice staircase procedure. The increment thresholds for five normal subjects were adequately fit by power functions with exponents that shifted continuously from about 0.5 (square-root-law behavior) to about 1.0 (Weber's-law behavior) as stimulus temporal frequency increased from 1 to 30 Hz. A neural simulation, with the use of published contrast-response functions of magnocellular and parvocellular neurons, adjusted with an estimate of response variance, produced two distinct ‘neural increment-threshold functions’ that were similar to the psychophysical results obtained at the highest and the lowest temporal frequencies, respectively. A shift from a relatively more noise-limited neural mechanism to one whose response is predominantly determined by gain is suggested to account for the change of the contrast-increment-threshold function with increasing temporal frequency.