Dynamic Cancellation of Perceived Rotation from the Venetian Blind Effect.

Geometric differences between the images seen by each eye enable the perception of depth. Additionally, depth is produced in the absence of geometric disparities with binocular disparities in either the average luminance or contrast, which is known as the Venetian blind effect. The temporal dynamics of the Venetian blind effect are much slower (1.3 Hz) than those for geometric binocular disparities (4-5 Hz). Sine-wave modulations of luminance and contrast disparity, however, can be discriminated from square-wave modulations at 1 Hz, which suggests a non-linearity. To measure this non-linearity, a luminance or contrast disparity modulation was presented at a particular frequency and paired with a geometric disparity modulation that cancelled the perceived rotation induced by the luminance or contrast modulation. Phases between the luminance or contrast and the geometric modulation varied in 50 ms increments from -200 and 200 ms. When phases were aligned, observers perceived little or no rotation. When not aligned, a perceived rotation was induced by a contrast or luminance disparity that was then cancelled by the geometric disparity. This causes the perception of a slight jump. The Generalized Difference Model, which is linear in time, predicted a minimal probability in cases when luminance or contrast disparities occurred before the geometric disparities due to the slower dynamics of the Venetian blind effect. The Gated Generalized Difference Model, which is non-linear in time, predicted a minimal probability for offsets of 0 ms. Results followed the Gated model, which further suggests a non-linearity in time for the Venetian blind effect.

At least two distinct mechanisms control binocular luster, rivalry, and perceived rotation with contrast and average luminance disparities.

When one views a square-wave grating and dichoptically changes the average luminance or contrast of the monocular images, at least three perceptual phenomena might occur. These are the Venetian blind effect, or a perceived rotation of the bars around individual vertical axes; binocular luster, or a perceived shimmering; and binocular rivalry, or an alternating perception between the views of the two eyes. Perception of luster and rivalry occur when the "light bars" in the grating dichoptically straddle the background luminance (one eye's image has a higher luminance than the background and the other eye's image has a lower luminance than the background), with little impact from the "dark bars." Perception of rotation, on the other hand, is related to average luminance or contrast disparity, independent of whether or not the "light bars" straddle the background luminance. The patterns for perceived rotation versus binocular luster and binocular rivalry suggest at least two separate mechanisms in the visual system for processing luminance and contrast information over and above their differing physiological states suggested by their different appearances. While luster and rivalry depend directly on the relation between stimuli and the background, perceived rotation depends on the magnitude of the luminance or contrast disparity, as described by the generalized difference model.

The Discovery of the Venetian Blind Effect: A Translation of Münster (1941).

Münster, the first to discover the effects of a luminance disparity on perceived depth, described two: (1) The apparent displacement in depth of one of a pair of objects relative to the other when viewed with a luminance disparity, and (2) The apparent overall displacement of objects viewed with a luminance disparity away from the observer. The first, which is the Venetian blind effect, was ascribed to irradiation. Current evidence suggests that irradiation fails to account for the effect, implying that neural mechanisms are involved. The second was thought to be related to the perceived distance of a monocularly viewed stimulus embedded in a dichoptically viewed stimulus. However, the measured effect was probably due to aniseikonia. Münster offered a compelling and seemingly complete account of the Venetian blind effect using irradiation theory. Münster's irradiation theory effectively inhibited further research by relegating the perceived depth displacement to largely non-neural mechanisms. It is now becoming clear that Münster's measurement of the Venetian blind effect represents the discovery of one of several mechanisms supporting stereopsis, though he and many others failed to recognize that discovery at the time.

Temporal dynamics of the Venetian blind effect.

When square wave gratings are viewed binocularly with lower luminance or contrast in one eye, the individual bars of the grating appear to rotate around a vertical axis (Venetian blind effect). The effect has typically been thought to occur due to retinal disparities that result from irradiation and, therefore, are entirely entoptic. If so, the visual system should process disparities from a luminance or contrast disparity and a geometric disparity at the same rate. Studies of motion-in-depth using geometric disparities have shown that the visual system is unable to process depth cues when those cues are oscillated at frequencies greater than 5 Hz. By changing contrast (experiments one and two) and geometric (experiment three) disparity cues over time, the present study measured the frequency at which both the perception of motion-in-depth and the perception of depth diminish. The perception of motion-in-depth from contrast disparities decreased near 1.1 Hz (experiments one and four) and the perception of depth from contrast disparities decreased near 1.3 Hz (experiments one, two and four); both of which are lower than the frequency where depth from a geometric disparity diminished (near 4.8 Hz in experiment three). The differences between the dynamics of depth from contrast and geometric disparities suggest that the perception arises from separate neural mechanisms.

Partitioning contrast or luminance disparity into perceived intensity and rotation.

While most of the work on stereopsis focuses on geometric disparities, humans also respond to intensity (contrast or luminance) disparities in the absence of geometric disparities. A rectangular-wave grating viewed with an intensity disparity engenders two perceptions: a perceived intensity, and a perceived rotation of the individual bars of the grating (the Venetian blind effect). Measuring perceived intensity and perceived rotation in gratings with intensity disparities, we found that the two degrees of freedom from the intensities presented to each eye are conserved in the form of two perceptions: perceived intensity is related to the sum of the grating intensities and perceived rotation is related to the difference. Perceived rotation as a function of intensity disparity was then modeled as a simple difference in the neural response of each eye. Perceived contrast and brightness as a function of intensity disparity were modeled using the two-stage gain-control model.

An investigation of the Venetian blind effect.

When a rectangular wave grating is binocularly viewed with a neutral density filter over one eye, an illusory rotation resembling that of a partially opened Venetian blind is perceived (Cibis and Haber, 1951). Using a binary classification task, in the first experiment, the probability of perceiving a rotation in a given direction was measured as a function of a factorial combination of inter-ocular contrast (see Note 1) and luminance ratios. The probability of a rotation in a given direction decreased monotonically with the luminance of the brighter bars when the grating contains a less than unity contrast. This result is inconsistent with (i) the model of the Venetian blind effect proposed by Cibis and Haber (1951), (ii) a mechanism based on irradiation with a compressive non-linearity (von Helmholtz, 1911/1924, pp. 186-193) and (iii) contemporary stereo-energy/cross-correlation models of stereopsis. In the second and third experiments, we tested the prediction that irradiation combined with an early compressive non-linearity in response implies a positive relationship between both the threshold contrast or average luminance disparity to perceive rotation and the magnitude of perceived rotation, and the blur width at the bar's edge. No support was found for the prediction. We propose an intensity difference model of the probability of perceiving a rotation in a given direction as a function of the interocular difference in luminance or contrast.

Swim stress-induced ultrasonic vocalizations forecast resilience in rats.

Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) have been observed in a number of rodent species. They occur under a variety of conditions, including aversive and stressful experiences. In the current study, we recorded USVs emitted by rats exposed to intermittent cold water swim (ICWS) stress and subsequently evaluated their performance in an instrumental swim escape test (SET). In the SET, rats exposed to ICWS fall into two categories, resilient or vulnerable, based on good or poor learning, respectively. Four of 16 rats exposed to ICWS emitted far more USVs during the stress procedure than the remaining 12. Interestingly, in the SET these USV-emitting rats appeared resilient with escape performance comparable to controls while on average the non-emitting rats failed to learn. This result demonstrates that USVs can serve as a predictor of stress resilience. USV screening during stress may serve as a novel and non-invasive strategy to predict subsequent stress reactivity and afford insight into the neural systems involved in resilience.