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Bar orientation discrimination in the cat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Peter De Weerd ,
Erik Vandenbussche  and
Guy A. Orban
Peter De Weerd
Affiliation:
Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Erik Vandenbussche
Affiliation:
Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Guy A. Orban
Affiliation:
Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
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Abstract

We have measured orientation-discrimination thresholds of 4 deg in the cat, confirming an earlier study of Vandenbussche and Orban (1983). Unlike Vandenbussche and Orban (1983), we found that orientation-discrimination performance is not better at principal, as compared to oblique, reference orientations (no oblique effect). Despite the absence of the oblique effect, and despite the discrimination thresholds which were elevated by a factor of 4 compared to humans, orientation-discrimination performance of cats and humans is qualitatively similar in a number of aspects. First, orientation-discrimination performance as a function of length and contrast is qualitatively similar to human performance. Second, as in humans, detection and discrimination of the stimuli are closely related. Finally, randomizing the contrast between the stimuli does not affect orientation-discrimination performance. This suggests that similar computations underlay orientation-discrimination performance in both species. In summary, our results confirm that the cat is a useful model for human orientation-discrimination performance.

Keywords

CatOrientationDiscriminationJust noticeable differenceBarLengthContrast
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , March 1990 , pp. 257 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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