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Effect of contrast on the active control of a moving lineIn many passive visual tasks, human perceptual judgments are contrast dependent. To explore whether these contrast dependencies of visual perception also affect closed-loop manual control tasks, we examined visuomotor performance as humans actively controlled a moving luminance-defined line over a range of contrasts. Four subjects were asked to use a joystick to keep a horizontal line centered on a display as its vertical position was perturbed by a sum of sinusoids under two control regimes. The total root mean square (RMS) position error decreased quasi-linearly with increasing log contrast across the tested range (mean slope across subjects: -8.0 and -7.7% per log2 contrast, for the two control regimes, respectively). Frequency-response (Bode) plots showed a systematic increase in open-loop gain (mean slope: 1.44 and 1.30 dB per log2 contrast, respectively), and decrease in phase lag with increasing contrast, which can be accounted for by a decrease in response time delay (mean slope: 32 and 40 ms per log2 contrast, respectively). The performance data are well fit by a Crossover Model proposed by McRuer and Krendel, which allowed us to identify both visual position and motion cues driving performance. This analysis revealed that the position and motion cues used to support manual control under both control regimes appear equally sensitive to changes in stimulus contrast. In conclusion, our data show that active control of a moving visual stimulus is as dependent on contrast as passive perception and suggest that this effect is attributed to a shared contrast sensitivity early in the visual pathway, before any specialization for motion processing.
Document ID
20050184888
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Li, Li
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Sweet, Barbara T.
Stone, Leland S.
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
May 1, 2005
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of neurophysiology
Volume: 93
Issue: 5
ISSN: 0022-3077
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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