Human contrast discrimination and the threshold of cortical neurons

Quest: A Bayesian adaptive psychometric method

Watson, A. B., & Pelli, D. G. (1983) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/bf03202828 · Cited by 2,398 · see citing works

A decision-making theory of visual detection.

Tanner, W. P., & Swets, J. A. (1954) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0058700 · Cited by 1,316 · see citing works

Striate cortex of monkey and cat: contrast response function.

Albrecht, D. G., & Hamilton, D. B. (1982) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1982.48.1.217 · Cited by 956 · see citing works

Uncertainty explains many aspects of visual contrast detection and discrimination

Pelli, D. G. (1985) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.2.001508 · Cited by 689 · see citing works

Discrimination at threshold: Labelled detectors in human vision

Watson, A. B., & Robson, J. G. (1981) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(81)90014-6 · Cited by 423 · see citing works

Grating contrast: Discrimination may be better than detection

Nachmias, J., & Sansbury, R. V. (1974) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(74)90175-8 · Cited by 395 · see citing works

Contrast detection and near-threshold discrimination in human vision

Foley, J. M., & Legge, G. E. (1981) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(81)90009-2 · Cited by 294 · see citing works

A power law for contrast discrimination

Legge, G. E. (1981) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(81)90092-4 · Cited by 270 · see citing works

The dependence of response amplitude and variance of cat visual cortical neurones on stimulus contrast

Tolhurst, D. J., Movshon, J. A., & Thompson, I. D. (1981) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/bf00238900 · Cited by 264 · see citing works

Three factors limiting the reliable detection of light by retinal ganglion cells of the cat

Barlow, H. B., & Levick, W. R. (1969) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008679 · Cited by 251 · see citing works

On the psychometric function for contrast detection

Nachmias, J. (1981) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(81)90115-2 · Cited by 208 · see citing works

Binocular contrast summation—I. Detection and discrimination

Legge, G. E. (1984) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(84)90063-4 · Cited by 183 · see citing works

Luminance discrimination of brief flashes under various conditions of adaptation

Cornsweet, T. N., & Pinsker, H. M. (1965) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1965.sp007551 · Cited by 172 · see citing works

Visual Detection and Discrimination of Luminance Increments*

Nachmias, J., & Kocher, E. C. (1970) · Journal of the Optical Society of America · doi:10.1364/josa.60.000382 · Cited by 149 · see citing works

Capabilities of monkey cortical cells in spatial-resolution tasks

Parker, A., & Hawken, M. (1985) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.2.001101 · Cited by 128 · see citing works

The relationship between response amplitude and contrast for cat striate cortical neurones.

Dean, A. F. (1981) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1981.sp013875 · Cited by 118 · see citing works

Sensitivity of neurones in visual cortex (area 17) under different levels of anaesthesia

Ikeda, H., & Wright, M. J. (1974) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/bf00238014 · Cited by 88 · see citing works

Light and dark bars; contrast discrimination

Legge, G. E., & Kersten, D. (1983) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(83)90122-0 · Cited by 83 · see citing works

A method of determining the overall quantum efficiency of visual discriminations

Barlow, H. B. (1962) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1962.sp006838 · Cited by 82 · see citing works

Limit to the detection of Glass patterns in the presence of noise

Maloney, R. K., Mitchison, G., & Barlow, H. B. (1987) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.4.002336 · Cited by 57 · see citing works

Performance of cat retinal ganglion cells at low light levels.

Levick, W. R., Thibos, L. N., Cohn, T. E., Catanzaro, D., & Barlow, H. B. (1983) · The Journal of General Physiology · doi:10.1085/jgp.82.3.405 · Cited by 24 · see citing works

Bayesian decision theory in sensorimotor control

Kording, K. P., & Wolpert, D. M. (2006) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.05.003 · Cited by 866 · see citing works

SENSE AND THE SINGLE NEURON: Probing the Physiology of Perception

Parker, A. J., & Newsome, W. T. (1998) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.21.1.227 · Cited by 801 · see citing works

Could information theory provide an ecological theory of sensory processing?

Atick, J. J. (2011) · Network: Computation in Neural Systems · doi:10.3109/0954898x.2011.638888 · Cited by 679 · see citing works

Could information theory provide an ecological theory of sensory processing?

Atick, J. J. (1992) · Network Computation in Neural Systems · doi:10.1088/0954-898x_3_2_009 · Cited by 448 · see citing works

Neuronal basis of contrast discrimination

Boynton, G. M., Demb, J. B., Glover, G. H., & Heeger, D. J. (1999) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(98)00113-8 · Cited by 391 · see citing works

Mechanisms underlying gain modulation in the cortex

Ferguson, K. A., & Cardin, J. A. (2020) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-019-0253-y · Cited by 327 · see citing works

Visual cortex neurons in monkeys and cats: Detection, discrimination, and identification

Geisler, W. S., & Albrecht, D. G. (1997) · Visual Neuroscience · doi:10.1017/s0952523800011627 · Cited by 285 · see citing works

Power spectrum analysis of bursting cells in area MT in the behaving monkey

Bair, W., Koch, C., Newsome, W. T., & Britten, K. H. (1994) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.14-05-02870.1994 · Cited by 276 · see citing works

Could information theory provide an ecological theory of sensory processing?

Atick, J. J. (1992) · Network Computation in Neural Systems · doi:10.1088/0954-898x/3/2/009 · Cited by 234 · see citing works

Probabilistic models in human sensorimotor control

Wolpert, D. M. (2007) · Human Movement Science · doi:10.1016/j.humov.2007.05.005 · Cited by 212 · see citing works

Information and efficiency in the nervous system-a synthesis.

Sengupta, B., Stemmler, M. B., & Friston, K. J. (2013) · PLoS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003157 · Cited by 212 · see citing works

Learning-induced physiological plasticity in the thalamo-cortical sensory systems: a critical evaluation of receptive field plasticity, map changes and their potential mechanisms

Edeline, J. (1999) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0301-0082(98)00042-2 · Cited by 192 · see citing works

Attentional Modulation of Behavioral Performance and Neuronal Responses in Middle Temporal and Ventral Intraparietal Areas of Macaque Monkey

Cook, E. P., & Maunsell, J. H. R. (2002) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.22-05-01994.2002 · Cited by 190 · see citing works

Psychophysical signatures associated with magnocellular and parvocellular pathway contrast gain

Pokorny, J., & Smith, V. C. (1997) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.14.002477 · Cited by 162 · see citing works

Task-Related Modulation of Visual Cortex

Huk, A. C., & Heeger, D. J. (2000) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.2000.83.6.3525 · Cited by 143 · see citing works

The Analysis of Complex Motion Patterns by Form/Cue Invariant MSTd Neurons

Geesaman, B. J., & Andersen, R. A. (1996) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.16-15-04716.1996 · Cited by 146 · see citing works

The Precision of Single Neuron Responses in Cortical Area V1 during Stereoscopic Depth Judgments

Prince, S. J. D., Pointon, A. D., Cumming, B. G., & Parker, A. J. (2000) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.20-09-03387.2000 · Cited by 115 · see citing works

Population coding of visual stimuli by cortical neurons tuned to more than one dimension

Zohary, E. (1992) · Biological Cybernetics · doi:10.1007/bf00198480 · Cited by 104 · see citing works

Linking individual differences in human primary visual cortex to contrast sensitivity around the visual field

Himmelberg, M. M., Winawer, J. A., & Carrasco, M. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31041-9 · Cited by 96 · see citing works

Encoding of Luminance and Contrast by Linear and Nonlinear Synapses in the Retina

Odermatt, B., Nikolaev, A., & Lagnado, L. (2012) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.12.023 · Cited by 89 · see citing works

Visual motion integration in schizophrenia patients, their first-degree relatives, and patients with bipolar disorder

Chen, Y., Bidwell, L. C., & Holzman, P. S. (2004) · Schizophrenia Research · doi:10.1016/j.schres.2004.04.002 · Cited by 87 · see citing works

Depth-of-focus of the human eye in the near retinal periphery

Wang, B., & Ciuffreda, K. J. (2004) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2004.01.001 · Cited by 82 · see citing works

Feature-based attention enhances performance by increasing response gain

Herrmann, K., Heeger, D. J., & Carrasco, M. (2012) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2012.04.016 · Cited by 78 · see citing works

Disentangling signal from noise in visual contrast discrimination

Goréa, A., & Sagi, D. (2001) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn741 · Cited by 73 · see citing works

Differences between Primary Auditory Cortex and Auditory Belt Related to Encoding and Choice for AM Sounds

Niwa, M., Johnson, J. S., O’Connor, K. N., & Sutter, M. L. (2013) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2672-12.2013 · Cited by 64 · see citing works

Contributions of Online Visual Feedback to the Learning and Generalization of Novel Finger Coordination Patterns

Liu, X., & Scheidt, R. A. (2008) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.01044.2007 · Cited by 49 · see citing works

Effects of trial repetition in texture discrimination

Ofen, N., Moran, A., & Sagi, D. (2007) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2007.01.023 · Cited by 51 · see citing works

Putting the visual system noise back in the picture

Ahumada, A. J. (1987) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.4.002372 · Cited by 48 · see citing works

Does a Bayesian model of V1 contrast coding offer a neurophysiological account of human contrast discrimination?

Chirimuuta, M., & Tolhurst, D. J. (2005) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.06.022 · Cited by 46 · see citing works

Time course of perceptual discrimination and single neuron reliability

Zohary, E., Hillman, P., & Hochstein, S. (1990) · Biological Cybernetics · doi:10.1007/bf00205109 · Cited by 41 · see citing works

Contrast Threshold of a Brisk-Transient Ganglion Cell In Vitro

Dhingra, N. K., Kao, Y., Sterling, P., & Smith, R. G. (2003) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.01042.2002 · Cited by 39 · see citing works

Effects of contrast and temporal frequency on orientation discrimination for luminance and isoluminant stimuli

Reisbeck, T., & Gegenfurtner, K. R. (1998) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(97)00240-x · Cited by 37 · see citing works

The amount of information transmitted about contrast by neurones in the cat's visual cortex

Tolhurst, D. J. (1989) · Visual Neuroscience · doi:10.1017/s0952523800002212 · Cited by 37 · see citing works

Perceptual and neuronal correspondence in primary visual cortex

Paradiso, M. A. (2002) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(02)00311-2 · Cited by 36 · see citing works

Modeling pedestal experiments with amplitude instead of contrast

Yang, J., & Makous, W. L. (1995) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(94)00287-v · Cited by 36 · see citing works

Spike Generator Limits Efficiency of Information Transfer in a Retinal Ganglion Cell

Dhingra, N. K., & Smith, R. G. (2004) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5346-03.2004 · Cited by 32 · see citing works

Contrast sensitivity, V1 neural activity, and natural vision

Niemeyer, J. E., & Paradiso, M. A. (2016) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00635.2016 · Cited by 26 · see citing works

Color and luminance detection and discrimination asymmetries and interactions

Vingrys, A. J., & Mahon, L. E. (1998) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(97)00250-2 · Cited by 28 · see citing works

The perception of spatial order at a glance

Popple, A. V., & Levi, D. M. (2004) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2004.11.008 · Cited by 26 · see citing works

Comparison at a Distance

Danilova, M. V., & Mollon, J. D. (2003) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p3393 · Cited by 21 · see citing works

Functional Clusters of Neurons in Layer 6 of Macaque V1

Hawken, M. J., Shapley, R. M., Disney, A. A., García‐Marín, V., Henrie, J., Henry, C. A., Johnson, E. M., Joshi, S., Kelly, J. G., Ringach, D. L., et al. (2020) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1394-19.2020 · Cited by 19 · see citing works

Neural correlates of stimulus spatial frequency-dependent contrast detection

Meng, J., Liu, R., Wang, K., Hua, T., Lu, Z., & Xi, M.-M. (2013) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-012-3378-z · Cited by 18 · see citing works

Ideal observer analysis of signal quality in retinal circuits

Smith, R. G., & Dhingra, N. K. (2009) · Progress in Retinal and Eye Research · doi:10.1016/j.preteyeres.2009.05.001 · Cited by 17 · see citing works

EXPLAINING THE LIMITS OF OLSSON'S IMPOSSIBILITY RESULT

Wheeler, G. R. (2012) · The Southern Journal of Philosophy · doi:10.1111/j.2041-6962.2011.00083.x · Cited by 14 · see citing works

Single Cells versus Neuronal Assemblies

Barlow, H. B. (1992) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-49967-8_10 · Cited by 14 · see citing works

Learning from sensory predictions for autonomous and adaptive exploration of object shape with a tactile robot

Martínez-Hernández, U., Rubio-Solis, A., & Prescott, T. J. (2019) · Neurocomputing · doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2019.10.114 · Cited by 13 · see citing works

Effects of top-down influence suppression on behavioral and V1 neuronal contrast sensitivity functions in cats

Ding, J., Ye, Z., Xu, F., Hu, X., Yu, H., Zhang, S., Tu, Y., Zhang, Q., Sun, Q., Hua, T., et al. (2021) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103683 · Cited by 13 · see citing works

Analyzing Neuronal Processing Locus in Stimulus–Response Association Tasks

Zhang, J., Alexa Riehle, C., & Requin, J. (1997) · Journal of Mathematical Psychology · doi:10.1006/jmps.1997.1168 · Cited by 12 · see citing works

Internal noise in contrast discrimination propagates forwards from early visual cortex

Vilidaitė, G., Marsh, E., & Baker, D. H. (2019) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.049 · Cited by 11 · see citing works

Temporal-Contrast Discrimination and its Neural Correlates

Chen, Y., Bedell, H. E., & Frishman, L. J. (1996) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p250505 · Cited by 10 · see citing works

Pooling of first-order inputs in second-order vision

Westrick, Z. M., & Landy, M. S. (2013) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2013.08.005 · Cited by 9 · see citing works

Correlated structure of neuronal firing in macaque visual cortex limits information for binocular depth discrimination

Smith, J. E. T., & Parker, A. J. (2021) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00667.2020 · Cited by 8 · see citing works

Contrast enhancement of mail piece images

Shin, Y., Sridhar, R., Demjanenko, V., Palumbo, P. W., & Hull, J. J. (1992) · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · doi:10.1117/12.130271 · Cited by 8 · see citing works

Influence of age and feedback modality on the proprioceptive sense of force: insights from motor unit recordings

Henry, M., Darendeli, A., Tvrdy, T., Daneshgar, S., & Enoka, R. M. (2025) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.00486.2024 · Cited by 7 · see citing works

Red-green chromatic discrimination with variegated and homogeneous stimuli

Watanabe, A., Pokorny, J., & Smith, V. C. (1998) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(97)00455-0 · Cited by 7 · see citing works

Unobtrusively tracking eye gaze direction and pupil diameter of mammographers

Barrett, J. R., de Paredes, E. S., Dwyer, S. J., Merickel, M., & Hutchinson, T. E. (1994) · Academic Radiology · doi:10.1016/s1076-6332(05)80782-2 · Cited by 6 · see citing works

Contrast gain control in psychophysical contrast discrimination

Dannemiller, J. L., & Stephens, B. R. (1998) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/bf03206165 · Cited by 5 · see citing works

How many neurons does it take to see?

Hurlbert, A. C., & Derrington, A. M. (1993) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/0960-9822(93)90042-m · Cited by 5 · see citing works

Visual Field Asymmetries in Responses to ON and OFF Pathway Biasing Stimuli

Scott, M. T. W., Yakovleva, A., & Norcia, A. M. (2024) · Visual Neuroscience · doi:10.1017/s095252382400004x · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Peripheral Blur Perception in Young Children at Low Risk or High Risk of Myopia: Longitudinal Data

Dhungel, D., Bex, P. J., McCullough, A., Marín‐Franch, I., & Vera‐Díaz, F. A. (2025) · Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science · doi:10.1167/iovs.66.5.40 · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Single additive mechanism predicts lateral interactions effects—computational model

Matichin, H., Einav, S., & Spitzer, H. (2015) · Journal of the Optical Society of America A · doi:10.1364/josaa.32.002247 · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Salience of spatiochromatic patterns

Hardman, A., & Martinović, J. (2021) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/jov.21.4.7 · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Relating Temporal Properties of Spike Trains from Area MT Neurons to the Behavior of the Monkey

Bair, W., Christof Koch, A., Newsome, W. T., & Britten, K. H. (1994) · Research and perspectives in neurosciences · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-85148-3_13 · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Use of a local cone model to predict essential CSF light adaptation behavior used in the design of luminance quantization nonlinearities

Daly, S. J., & Golestaneh, S. A. (2015) · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · doi:10.1117/12.2083736 · Cited by 3 · see citing works

Image Enhancement—Chemical, Digital, Visual

Lohmann, J. (1989) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English · doi:10.1002/anie.198916013 · Cited by 3 · see citing works

Motor Cognition and Decision Theory in Sensorimotor Control

Jelačić, Z. (2025) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-95194-7_39 · Cited by 2 · see citing works

Spatial Vision

Geisler, W. S., & Albrecht, D. G. (2000) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-012443760-9/50005-2 · Cited by 2 · see citing works

Sensory-to-Motor Transformations: From Serial Pipelines to Dynamic, Distributed Processes

Lam, A., Kabbara, S., Carstens, K., Mol, W., Goel, A., Yang, H.-D., & Zagha, E. (2026) · Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106692 · Cited by 3 · see citing works

Cell assemblies versus single cells

Barlow, H. B. (1996) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-044482046-4/50056-0 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

Modulation of perceived contrast in the brightness comparison of asynchronous stimuli

Claessens, P. M. E., Pereira, L. O., & Baldo, M. V. C. (2014) · Attention Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/s13414-014-0758-4 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

SECOND-ORDER VISUAL MECHANISMS: REVIEW OF RESEARCH

Бабенко, В. В. (2023) · Журнал высшей нервной деятельности им И П Павлова · doi:10.31857/s0044467723010057 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

A Network of Coincidence Detector Neurons With Periodic and Chaotic Dynamics

Watanabe, M., & Aihara, K. (2004) · IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks · doi:10.1109/tnn.2004.834797 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

Faculty Opinions recommendation of Attentional modulation of behavioral performance and neuronal responses in middle temporal and ventral intraparietal areas of macaque monkey.

Sommer, M. A. (2004) · Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature · doi:10.3410/f.1021217.242566 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

Retinal neurocomputing principles for real time track identification

Athanasiu, G. G. (1997) · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment · doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(97)00076-4

A Simple Neural Network Model for Temporal Pulse Coding (Invariants of Dynamical Systems and Applications)

Watanabe, M., & Aihara, K. (1998) · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB)

Bildverbesserung – chemisch, digital, visuell

Lohmann, J. (1989) · Angewandte Chemie · doi:10.1002/ange.19891011204

On the Neuronal Systems Underlying Perceptual Decision-Making

Olbertz, J.-H., Kulke, E., Haynes, J., Sterzer, P., & Donner, T. H. (2014)

Dry Electrophysiology:An approach to the internal representation of brain functions through artificial neural networks

Usui, S., & Nakauchi, S. (1994) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-2097-1_28

Second-Order Visual Mechanisms: Review of Research

Бабенко, В. В. (2023) · Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology · doi:10.1007/s11055-023-01475-9

The psychophysicist’s microscope: weak stimuli reveal neuron-like response properties

Freeman, A. W., Luo-Li, G., & Alais, D. (2015) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/15.12.256

The effects of contrast on visual orientation and spatial frequency discrimination: a comparison of single cells and behavior

Skottun, B. C., Bradley, A., Sclar, G., Ohzawa, I., & Freeman, R. D. (1987) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1987.57.3.773 · Cited by 298 · see citing works

Optimal decisions for contrast discrimination

Sanborn, A. N., & Dayan, P. (2011) · Journal of Vision · doi:10.1167/11.14.9 · Cited by 7 · see citing works

Contrast Threshold of the Human eye

Blackwell, H. R. (1946) · Cited by 53 · see citing works

Equivalent noise and transduction efficiency of human vision

Pelli, D. G. (1988) · Annual Meeting Optical Society of America · doi:10.1364/oam.1988.tuh6