Eccentricity Effect of Deformation Detection for Radial Frequency Patterns With Their Centers at Fixation Point

Abstract

We measured the eccentricity effect of deformation thresholds of circular contours for two types of the radial frequency (RF) patterns with their centers at the fixation point: constant circular contour frequency (CCF) RF patterns and constant RF magnified (retino-cortical scaling) RF patterns. We varied the eccentricity by changing the mean radius of the RF patterns while keeping the centers of the RF patterns at the fixation point. Our peripheral stimulus presentation was distinguished from previous studies which have simply translated RF patterns at different locations in the visual field. Sensitivity for such shape discrimination fell off as the moderate and high CCF patterns were presented on more eccentric sites but did not as the low CCF patterns. However, sensitivity held constant as the magnified RF patterns were presented on more eccentric sites, indicating that the eccentricity effects observed for the high and moderate CCF patterns were neutralized by retinocortical mapping. Notably, sensitivity for the magnified RF patterns with large radii (4°–16°) presented in the peripheral field revealed a similar RF dependence observed for RF patterns with small radii (0.25°–1.0°) presented at the fovea in previous studies.