Person:
Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio

First Name

Ignacio

Last Name

Serrano Pedraza

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/80226

Affiliation

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Faculty / Institute

Psicología

Department

Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia

Area

Psicología Básica

Identifiers

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Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 44

Dataset from paper: Temporal mechanisms in frontoparallel stereomotion revealed by individual differences analysis
(2024) Peterzell, David; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; Llamas Cornejo, Ichasus
Visual suppression in intermittent exotropia during binocular alignment.
(Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 2011) Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; Manjunath, Vina; Osunkunle, Olaoluwakitan; Clarke, Michael P; Read, Jenny C A
PURPOSE To investigate the cortical mechanisms that prevent diplopia in intermittent exotropia (X(T)) during binocular alignment (orthotropia). METHODS The authors studied 12 X(T) patients aged 5 to 22 years. Seventy-five percent had functional stereo vision with stereoacuity similar to that of 12 age-matched controls (0.2-3.7 min arc). Identical face images were presented to the two eyes for 400 ms. In one eye, the face was presented at the fovea; in the other, offset along the horizontal axis with up to 12° eccentricity. The task was to indicate whether one or two faces were perceived. RESULTS All X(T) patients showed normal diplopia when the nonfoveal face was presented to nasal hemiretina, though with a slightly larger fusional range than age-matched controls. However, 10 of 12 patients never experienced diplopia when the nonfoveal face was presented to temporal hemiretina (i.e., when the stimulus simulated exodeviation). Patients showed considerable variability when the single image was perceived. Some patients suppressed the temporal stimulus regardless of which eye viewed it, whereas others suppressed a particular eye even when it viewed the foveal stimulus. In two patients, the simulated exodeviation might have triggered a shift from normal to anomalous retinal correspondence. CONCLUSIONS Antidiplopic mechanisms in X(T) can be reliably triggered by purely retinal information during orthotropia, but the nature of these mechanisms varies between patients.
Characterizing visual asymmetries in contrast perception using shaded stimuli.
(Journal of vision, 2015) Chacón Gómez, José; Castellanos López, Miguel Ángel; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio
Previous research has shown a visual asymmetry in shaded stimuli where the perceived contrast depended on the polarity of their dark and light areas (Chacón, 2004). In particular, circles filled out with a top-dark luminance ramp were perceived with higher contrast than top-light ones although both types of stimuli had the same physical contrast. Here, using shaded stimuli, we conducted four experiments in order to find out if the perceived contrast depends on: (a) the contrast level, (b) the type of shading (continuous vs. discrete) and its degree of perceived three-dimensionality, (c) the orientation of the shading, and (d) the sign of the perceived contrast alterations. In all experiments the observers' tasks were to equate the perceived contrast of two sets of elements (usually shaded with opposite luminance polarity), in order to determine the subjective equality point. Results showed that (a) there is a strong difference in perceived contrast between circles filled out with luminance ramp top-dark and top-light that is similar for different contrast levels; (b) we also found asymmetries in contrast perception with different shaded stimuli, and this asymmetry was not related with the perceived three-dimensionality but with the type of shading, being greater for continuous-shading stimuli;
Multiple channels for horizontal, but only one for vertical corrugations? A new look at the stereo anisotropy.
(Journal of vision, 2010) Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; Read, Jenny C A
Stereo vision displays a well-known anisotropy: disparity-defined slant is easier to detect for rotations about a horizontal axis than about a vertical axis, and low-frequency sinusoidal depth corrugations are easier to detect when the corrugations are horizontal than when they are vertical. Here, we determined disparity thresholds for vertically and horizontally oriented depth corrugations with both sinusoidal and square-wave profiles. We found that the orientation anisotropy for square waves is much weaker than for sine waves and is almost independent of frequency. This weaker anisotropy for square waves can be explained by considering the Fourier harmonics present in the stimulus. Using linear models imported from the luminance and texture perception domain, the disparity thresholds for square waves can be very well predicted from those for sine waves, for both horizontally and vertically oriented corrugations. For horizontally oriented corrugations, models based on the root mean square of the output of a single linear channel or the output of multiple linear channels worked equally well. This is consistent with previous evidence suggesting that stereo vision has multiple channels tuned to different spatial frequencies of horizontally oriented disparity modulations. However, for vertically oriented corrugations, only the root mean squared output of a single linear channel explained the data. We suggest that the stereo anisotropy may arise because the stereo system possesses multiple spatial frequency channels for detecting horizontally oriented modulations in horizontal disparity, but only one for vertically oriented modulations.
A comparison of backward masking of faces in expression and gender identification
(Psicológica, 2014) Aguado Aguilar, Luis; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; García Gutiérrez, Ana; Psicológica
The effects of different masking conditions on identification of face gender and expression at different target durations (17-119 ms time range) were studied in two experiments. In Experiments 1a and 1b, the effects of face masks were compared against those of noise masks (scrambled face stimuli) and a control, no-mask condition. Significant masking by noise masks was only found at the shortest target duration (17 ms). Effective masking by face masks was observed over a slightly longer time window in the gender than in the expression task (17-85 and 17-51 ms respectively). Moreover, clearly differentiated effects of face and noise masks were observed only in the expression task. In Experiments 2a and 2b, faces quantized with different sampling sizes were used as masks. A graded effect of sampling size was observed in the expression task, with those masks that preserved more facial information exerting stronger masking. However, all masks were equally effective in the gender task. These results demonstrate an interaction between masking and task demands, suggesting that different processing mechanisms may underlie identification of different properties of faces. An interpretation is offered in terms of the relative role of configural and feature processing in expression and gender identification.
Visual motion discrimination experiments reveal small differences between males and females
(Vision Research, 2023) Bachtoula González, Omar; Arranz Paraíso, Sandra; Luna, Raúl; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio
Recent results have shown that males have lower duration thresholds for motion direction discrimination than females. Measuring contrast thresholds, a previous study has shown that males have a greater sensitivity to fine details and fast flickering stimuli than females, and that females have a higher sensitivity to low spatial frequencies modulated at low temporal frequencies. Here, we present the data of a contrast-detection motion discrimination experiment and a reanalysis of four different motion discrimination experiments where we compare duration thresholds for males and females using different spatial frequencies, stimulus sizes, contrasts, and temporal frequencies (in two experiments, motion surround suppression was measured). Results from the main experiment and the reanalysis show that, in general, the association between sex and contrast and duration thresholds for motion discrimination is not significant, with males and females showing similar data patterns. Only the reanalysis of one out of four studies revealed different duration thresholds between males and females paired with a strong effect size supporting previous results in the literature, although motion surround suppression was identical between groups. Importantly, most of our results do not show significant differences between males and females in contrast and duration thresholds, suggesting that the sex variable may not be as relevant as previously claimed when testing visual motion discrimination.
Comparing Bias and Precision of Stochastic and Bayesian Procedures for Disparity Threshold Estimation
(2019) Arranz Paraíso, Sandra; Chacón Gómez, José Carlos; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio
Testing the horizontal-vertical stereo anisotropy with the critical-band masking paradigm
(Journal of vision, 2013) Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; Brash, Claire; Read, Jenny C A
Stereo vision has a well-known anisotropy: At low frequencies, horizontally oriented sinusoidal depth corrugations are easier to detect than vertically oriented corrugations (both defined by horizontal disparities). Previously, Serrano-Pedraza and Read (2010) suggested that this stereo anisotropy may arise because the stereo system uses multiple spatial-frequency disparity channels for detecting horizontally oriented modulations but only one for vertically oriented modulations. Here, we tested this hypothesis using the critical-band masking paradigm. In the first experiment, we measured disparity thresholds for horizontal and vertical sinusoids near the peak of the disparity sensitivity function (0.4 cycles/°), in the presence of either broadband or notched noise. We fitted the power-masking model to our results assuming a channel centered on 0.4 cycles/°. The estimated channel bandwidths were 2.95 octaves for horizontal and 2.62 octaves for vertical corrugations. In our second experiment we measured disparity thresholds for horizontal and vertical sinusoids of 0.1 cycles/° in the presence of band-pass noise centered on 0.4 cycles/° with a bandwidth of 0.5 octaves. This mask had only a small effect on the disparity thresholds, for either horizontal or vertical corrugations. We simulated the detection thresholds using the power-masking model with the parameters obtained in the first experiment and assuming either single-channel and multiple-channel detection. The multiple-channel model predicted the thresholds much better for both horizontal and vertical corrugations. We conclude that the human stereo system must contain multiple independent disparity channels for detecting horizontally oriented and vertically oriented depth modulations.
Stereo vision requires an explicit encoding of vertical disparity.
(Journal of vision, 2009) Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio; Read, Jenny C A
Vertical disparities influence the perception of 3D depth, but little is known about the neuronal mechanisms underlying this. One possibility is that these perceptual effects are mediated by an explicit encoding of two-dimensional disparity. Recently, J. C. A. Read and B. G. Cumming (2006) pointed out that current psychophysical and physiological evidence is consistent with a much more economical one-dimensional encoding. Almost all relevant information about vertical disparity could in theory be extracted from the activity of purely horizontal-disparity sensors. Read and Cumming demonstrated that such a 1D system would experience Ogle's induced effect, a famous illusion produced by vertical disparity. Here, we test whether the brain employs this 1D encoding, using a version of the induced effect stimulus that simulates the viewing geometry at infinity and thus removes the cues which are otherwise available to the 1D model. This condition was compared to the standard induced effect stimulus, presented on a frontoparallel screen at finite viewing distance. We show that the induced effects experienced under the two conditions are indistinguishable. This rules out the 1D model proposed by Read and Cumming and shows that vertical disparity, including sign, must be explicitly encoded across the visual field.
Moderate acute alcohol intoxication has minimal effect on surround suppression measured with a motion direction discrimination task.
(Journal of vision, 2015) Read, Jenny C A; Georgiou, Renos; Brash, Claire; Yazdani, Partow; Whittaker, Roger; Trevelyan, Andrew J; Serrano Pedraza, Ignacio
A well-studied paradox of motion perception is that, in order to correctly judge direction in high-contrast stimuli, subjects need to observe motion for longer in large stimuli than in small stimuli. This effect is one of several perceptual effects known generally as "surround suppression." It is usually attributed to center-surround antagonism between neurons in visual cortex, believed to be mediated by GABA-ergic inhibition. Accordingly, several studies have reported that this index of surround suppression is reduced in groups known to have reduced GABA-ergic inhibition, including older people and people with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. In this study, we examined the effect on this index of moderate amounts of ethanol alcohol. Among its many effects on the nervous system, alcohol potentiates GABA-ergic transmission. We therefore hypothesized that it should further impair the perception of motion in large stimuli, resulting in a stronger surround-suppression index. This prediction was not borne out. Alcohol consumption slightly worsened duration thresholds for both large and small stimuli, but their ratio did not change significantly.