Human flicker sensitivity: how well our visual system utilizes the
information supplied by retina photoreceptors
Dawei Dong
It is natural to hypothesize that under the evolution pressure, nerve
systems should be optimized to process sensory information. Thus, for a
given sensitivity of photoreceptors, the rest of the visual system
should be compatible with it to fully utilize the information supplied
by those photoreceptors. At high temporal frequency, the flicker
sensitivity of photoreceptors decreases for increasing temporal
frequencies. It is not surprising that flicker sensitivity of human
visual system also decreases for increasing temporal frequencies, as
revealed in psychophysical experiments. But a puzzle exists: the
psychophysical flicker sensitivity decreases much more than the flicker
sensitivity of retinal photoreceptors. Based on measurements of the
statistics of natural time-varying images, I will show that the
difference can be explained by the need of suppressing noise under
various light intensities. In fact, the information supplied by retina
photoreceptors is utilized by our visual system optimumly under natural
conditions. The result is in quantitative agreement with physiological
and psychophysical experiments on visual temporal response and
adaptation.
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