Summary
The change of activity of optic tract fibers of the cat has been measured when moving visual stimuli are presented at a large distance from the center of the receptive field (McIlwain's periphery effect). Two different patterns of moving visual stimuli are used. The effects of the same stimuli are studied psychophysically with stabilized images. It appears that the peripheral stimulus which is most effective in eliciting the periphery effect in the electrophysiological experiments does not cause the filling-in phenomenon in the psychophysical experiments, whereas on the other hand a stimulus which causes a psychophysically clearly observed filling-in phenomenon generates a very small periphery effect in the electrophysiological experiments. The conclusion is that, although some spread of activity over large distances in the retina exists, this spread is not correlated with the perception of the filling-in. These findings can be explained on the basis of a model of the information processing in the visual system, derived from experiments with stabilized images.
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Moors, J., Coenen, A.M.L., Gerrits, H.J.M. et al. The filling-in phenomenon in vision and McIlwain's periphery effect. Exp Brain Res 19, 343–350 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234459
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234459