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Sensitivity to the slope of the amplitude spectrum is dependent on the spectral slopes of recently viewed environments: A visual adaptation study in modified reality

View ORCID ProfileBruno Richard, Patrick Shafto
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.19.456985
Bruno Richard
aDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Rutgers University - Newark, 101 Warren Street, Rm 216, Newark, New Jersey, USA, 07102
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  • For correspondence: bruno.richard@rutgers.edu
Patrick Shafto
aDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Rutgers University - Newark, 101 Warren Street, Rm 216, Newark, New Jersey, USA, 07102
bSchool of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
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Abstract

Scenes contain many statistical regularities that could benefit visual processing if accounted for by the visual system. One such statistic is the orientation-averaged slope (α) of the amplitude spectrum of natural scenes. Human observers show different discrimination sensitivity to α: sensitivity is highest for α values between 1.0 and 1.2 and decreases as α is steepened or shallowed. The range of α for peak discrimination sensitivity is concordant with the average α of natural scenes, which may indicate that visual mechanisms are optimized to process information at α values commonly encountered in the environment. Here we explore the association between peak discrimination sensitivity and the most viewed αs in natural environments. Specifically, we verified whether discrimination sensitivity depends on the recently viewed environments. Observers were immersed, using a Head-Mounted Display, in an environment that was either unaltered or had its average α steepened or shallowed by 0.4. Discrimination thresholds were affected by the average shift in α, but this effect was most prominent following adaptation to a shallowed environment. We modeled these data with a Bayesian observer and explored whether a change in the prior or a change in the likelihood best explained the psychophysical effects. Change in discrimination thresholds following adaptation could be explained by a shift in the central tendency of the prior concordant with the shift of the environment, in addition to a change in the likelihood. Our findings suggest that expectations on the occurrence of α that result from a lifetime of exposure remain plastic and able to accommodate for the statistical structure of recently viewed environments.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Inclusion of a new paragraph in the discussion section to describe the likelihood component of our model.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted April 13, 2022.
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Sensitivity to the slope of the amplitude spectrum is dependent on the spectral slopes of recently viewed environments: A visual adaptation study in modified reality
Bruno Richard, Patrick Shafto
bioRxiv 2021.08.19.456985; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.19.456985
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Sensitivity to the slope of the amplitude spectrum is dependent on the spectral slopes of recently viewed environments: A visual adaptation study in modified reality
Bruno Richard, Patrick Shafto
bioRxiv 2021.08.19.456985; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.19.456985

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