Adaptation to a ‘Spatial-Frequency Doubled’ Stimulus

Abstract

The perceived spatial frequency of low-frequency sinusoidal gratings is elevated when the gratings are temporally modulated sufficiently rapidly. Although this phenomenon is usually called ‘spatial-frequency doubling’, the magnitude of this spatial-frequency elevation depends on the spatial and temporal parameters of the grating and may be less than or greater than doubling. Adaptation to such a pattern produces contrast-threshold elevation whose spatial-frequency tuning is centred upon the grating's real rather than perceived spatial frequency. These results suggest that spatial-frequency elevation occurs later in the visual system than adaptation or that these two processes are independent of one another, at least under the conditions of these experiments.