Foveal

About: Foveal is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2652 publications have been published within this topic receiving 94120 citations.

Effect of large spatial uncertainty on foveal luminance increment detectability

Abstract: In principle, the ability to detect a luminance increment is lowered when there is uncertainty for its spatial location. Frequency-of-seeing curves were generated for small foveal targets. When fixed in space the target’s detectability was more than 10 times higher than when it could occur at one of 140 locations.

Diurnal variation of retinal thickness with spectral domain OCT.

Abstract: Purpose. To investigate whether diurnal variation occurs in retinal thickness measures derived from spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Methods. Twelve healthy adult subjects had retinal thickness measured with SD-OCT every 2 h over a 10 h period. At each measurement session, three average B-scan images were derived from a series of multiple B-scans (each from a 5 mm horizontal raster scan along the fovea, containing 1500 A-scans/B-scan) and analyzed to determine the thickness of the total retina, as well as the thickness of the outer retinal layers. Average thickness values were calculated at the foveal center, at the 0.5 mm diameter foveal region, and for the temporal parafovea (1.5 mm from foveal center) and nasal parafovea (1.5 mm from foveal center). Results. Total retinal thickness did not exhibit significant diurnal variation in any of the considered retinal regions (p > 0.05). Evidence of significant diurnal variation was found in the thickness of the outer retinal layers (p < 0.05), with the most prominent changes observed in the photoreceptor layers at the foveal center. The photoreceptor inner and outer segment layer thickness exhibited mean amplitude (peak to trough) of daily change of 7 ± 3 μm at the foveal center. The peak in thickness was typically observed at the third measurement session (mean measurement time, 13:06). Conclusions. The total retinal thickness measured with SD-OCT does not exhibit evidence of significant variation over the course of the day. However, small but significant diurnal variation occurs in the thickness of the foveal outer retinal layers.

Attentional Modulation of Receptive Field Structure in Area 7a of the Behaving Monkey

Abstract: Spatial attention modulates the activity of inferior parietal neurons. A statistically rigorous approach to classical retinotopic mapping was used to quantify the receptive fields of area 7a neurons under two attentional conditions. Measurements were made with retinal stimulation held constant and the locus of attention manipulated covertly. Both tasks required central fixation but differed in the locus of covert attention (either on the center fixation point, or on a peripheral square target in one of 25 locations). The neuron's identity over the recording session was confirmed using chaos theory to characterize unique temporal patterns. Sixty-six percent of the neurons changed prestimulus activity based on task state. Retinotopic mapping showed no evidence for foveal sparing. Attentional factors influenced visual responses for ∼30% of the neurons. Two types of modulation were equally observed. One group of cells had a multiplicative scaling of response, with equal instances of enhancement and suppression. A second group of cells had a complex interaction of visual and attentional signals, such that spatial tuning was subject to a non-linear modulation across the visual field based on attentional constraints. These two cell groups may have different roles in the shift of attention preceding motor behaviors and may underlie shifts in parietal retinotopic maps observed with intrinsic optical imaging.