EVIDENCE FOR SPATIAL ALIASING EFFECTS IN THE Y-LIKE CELLS OF THE MAGNOCELLULAR VISUAL PATHWAY

Several lines of evidence are provided indicating that our visual perc ept can be dominated by spatial aliasing for viewing conditions near t hose needed to see the spatial frequency doubled illusion. The apparen t aliasing effect indicates that the underlying sampling array has a d ensity 15-30% of that of M-cells, in agreement with the known proporti on of Y-like M-cells (M-y-cells). The presence of aliasing indicates, that there is a separate irregular array of My-cells, and that their r ole is to rapidly convey information on retinal gain control to the br ain rather than to act primarily as inputs to image motion computation . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.