Temporal Frequency and the Magnocellular and Parvocellular Systems

摘要

Can the magnocellular system be stimulated exclusively, or predominantly, by using a particular temporal frequency? There are two problems. (1) Many researchers have confused contrast reversal rates with luminance modulation frequencies, even though it is the latter (which is half the reversal rate) that may be compared to neuronal responses. (2) Many of the frequencies used are too low to selectively activate magnocellular neurons. While a pure magnocellular response may be obtained by employing particular combinations of temporal frequency, spatial frequency and contrast, however, this possibility is limited to stimuli close to detection threshold, and such stimuli give only weak responses.