ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7559-6019
Current Organisation
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
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Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 04-2011
DOI: 10.1167/11.4.1
Abstract: It has long been known that an outward mask is much more disruptive than an inward mask in crowding (H. Bouma, 1973). We show that the locus of attention strongly affects this inward-outward anisotropy, removing it in some conditions and reversing it in others. In a 2AFC paradigm, subjects identified whether a high-contrast Gabor target of a given orientation was presented left or right of fixation. When a fixed eccentricity (8°) was used, the outward plaid mask produced much stronger crowding than the inward mask. When 7°, 8°, and 9° eccentricities were interleaved within the same run, diffusing attention, the inward and outward masks produced the same amount of crowding for all three eccentricities. When target identification was contingent on a foveal cue, biasing attention inward, the inward mask produced stronger crowding. Finally, a new contrast-detection paradigm was used to demonstrate that attention is generally mislocalized outward of the target, which may explain the commonly observed anisotropy in crowding. Our results suggest that spatial attention is intimately involved in the mechanism of crowding.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 04-2004
Abstract: We investigated contour processing and figure–ground detection within human retinotopic areas using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 6 healthy and naïve subjects. A figure (6° side length) was created by a 2nd-order texture contour. An independent and demanding foveal letter-discrimination task prevented subjects from noticing this more peripheral contour stimulus. The contour sub ided our stimulus into a figure and a ground. Using localizers and retinotopic mapping stimuli we were able to sub ide each early visual area into 3 eccentricity regions corresponding to 1) the central figure, 2) the area along the contour, and 3) the background. In these subregions we investigated the hemodynamic responses to our stimuli and compared responses with or without the contour defining the figure. No contour-related blood oxygenation level–dependent modulation in early visual areas V1, V3, VP, and MT+ was found. Significant signal modulation in the contour subregions of V2v, V2d, V3a, and LO occurred. This activation pattern was different from comparable studies, which might be attributable to the letter-discrimination task reducing confounding attentional modulation. In V3a, but not in any other retinotopic area, signal modulation corresponding to the central figure could be detected. Such contextual modulation will be discussed in light of the recurrent processing hypothesis and the role of visual awareness.
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 03-12-2010
DOI: 10.1167/10.14.1
Abstract: To study the effect of blur adaptation on accommodative variability, accommodative responses and pupil diameters in myopes (n = 22) and emmetropes (n = 19) were continuously measured before, during, and after exposure to defocus blur. Accommodative and pupillary response measurements were made by an autorefractor during a monocular reading exercise. The text was presented on a computer screen at 33 cm viewing distance with a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. After baseline testing and a 5-min rest, blur was induced by wearing either an optimally refractive lens, or a +1.0 DS or a +3.0 DS defocus lens. Responses were continuously measured during a 5-min period of adaptation. The lens was then removed, and measurements were again made during a 5-min post-adaptation period. After a second 5-min rest, a final post-adaptation period was measured. No significant change of baseline accommodative responses was found after the 5-min period of adaptation to the blurring lenses (p > 0.05). Compared to the pre-adaptation level, both refractive groups had similar and significant increases in accommodative variability right after blur adaptation to both defocus lenses. After the second rest period, the accommodative variability in both groups returned to the pre-adaptation level. The results indicate that blur adaptation has a short-term effect on the accommodative system to elevate instability of the accommodative response. Mechanisms underlying the increase in accommodative variability by blur adaptation and possible influences of the accommodation stability on myopia development were discussed.
No related grants have been discovered for Tobias H. Donner.