Coding of image contrast in central visual pathways of the macaque monkey.

By G. Sclar, John H. R. Maunsell, P. Lennie. 1990

Measurements of contrast sensitivity were obtained from isolated neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus, striate cortex, and middle temporal visual area of macaque monkeys. Between the lateral geniculate nucleus and the middle temporal area contrast sensitivity functions become progressively steeper. Furthermore, many neurons in the middle temporal area are more sensitive than any cell encountered in early stages. Measurements made with stimuli of different sizes show that this high sensitivity depends on areal summation across the receptive field.

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Citations in the corpus

A model of neuronal responses in visual area MT. (1998, positive): “The additional squaring nonlinearity leads to an MT contrast-response function that is steeper than that of the V1 cells, consistent with data reported by Sclar et al. (1990) .”
The Limits of Feedforward Vision: Recurrent Processing Promotes Robust Object Recognition when Objects Are Degraded (2012, background): “In contrast, all the neural data we are aware of show that the effect of occlusion and contrast reduction is an overall decrease in response levels across brain areas (Nielsen et al., 2006; Williford & Maunsell, 2006; Kovacs et al., 1995; Sclar, Maunsell, & Lennie, 1990).”
Motion selectivity and the contrast-response function of simple cells in the visual cortex (1991, background): “The recent report from Sclar et al. (1990) is consistent with this basic notion.”
Do We Know What the Early Visual System Does? (2005, background): “Contrast gain control begins in retina (Shapley and Enroth-Cugell, 1984; Victor, 1987; Baccus and Meister, 2002) and is strengthened at subsequent stages of the visual pathway (Kaplan et al., 1987; Sclar et al., 1990).”
A Theory of Object Recognition: Computations and Circuits in the Feedforward Path of the Ventral Stream in Primate Visual Cortex (2005, background): “[Sclar et al., 1990] showed that the steepness of the contrast-response functions of neurons increases from LGN through V1, V2 to MT and that “cells become, in the contrast domain, progressively more like switches, being either on or off” [Lennie, 1998].”
Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal (2001, background): “In general, neurons show an increasing response that is nonlinear at low contrasts, and a linear increase up to a certain contrast level at which the response reaches its asymptot”
Noise characteristics and prior expectations in human visual speed perception (2006, methodology): “The average firing rate of cortical neurons as a function of contrast is well described by r(c) = rmaxc /(c + cq50) + rbase, where rmax and rbase are maximum and base-line firing rate, respectively, and q and c50 specify the slope and the semi-saturation point of the contrast response function [20].”
Functional mechanisms shaping lateral geniculate responses to artificial and natural stimuli. (2008, background): “, 2001; Meister and Berry, 1999; Shapley and Enroth-Cugell, 1984); the latter begins in the retina (Baccus and Meister, 2002; Demb, 2002; Meister and Berry, 1999; Shapley and Enroth-Cugell, 1984; Shapley and Victor, 1978; Victor, 1987) and becomes progressively stronger at later stages in the visual”
The Statistical Computation Underlying Contrast Gain Control (2006, unknown): “Consistent with this hypothesis, gain is independent of the exact stimulus position within a local region (Shapley and Victor, 1978; Benardete and Kaplan, 1999) and decreases with stimulus area (Shapley and Victor, 1981; Sclar et al., 1990; Bonin et al., 2005).”
Linearity and Normalization in Simple Cells of the Macaque Primary Visual Cortex (1997, background): “In any event, values close to 2 are consistent with the results of Albrecht and Hamilton (1982) and Sclar et al. (1990), who fitted the amplitude of the responses with an equation similar to our Equation 5.”
The Suppressive Field of Neurons in Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (2005, methodology): “3) (Sclar et al., 1990) than the value n 2 used by Victor (1987).”
Independence of luminance and contrast in natural scenes and in the early visual system (2005, background): “and is strengthened at subsequent stages of the visual syste”