Abstract
The visual acuity of 215 observers between the ages of 3 and 20 years was measured by determining the minimal size of rectangular gratings, when the observer could discriminate horizontal and vertical gratings. The study of the influence of similar surrounding patterns on the assessment of visual acuity was conducted in parallel. The visual acuity was shown to increase with age and to reach the level typical of adults at about 11 years. All the observers had impaired discrimination of the orientation of gratings when the surrounding gratings were arranged close to each other. The distances at which the impairment occurs gradually decrease with increasing age up to 20 years from 2.75 to 1.5–0.75 periods of the test frequency. The problem of the formation in ontogenesis of possible mechanisms ensuring visual acuity and the ability to perform the task of objects' segmentation from the surrounding is discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Teller, D.Y., The Forced Choice Preferential Looking Procedure: A Psychophysical Technique for Use with Human Infants, Infant Behav. Dev., 1979, vol. 2, p. 135.
Teller, D.Y., First Glances: The Vision of Infants. The Friedenwald Lecture, Invest. Ophthalmol. Visual Sci., 1997, vol. 38, no. 11, p. 2183.
Teller, D.Y., Morse, R., Borton, R., and Regal, D., Visual Acuity for Vertical and Diagonal Gratings in Human Infants, Vision Res., 1974, vol. 14, p. 1433.
Fantz, R.L., The Origin of Form Perception, Sci. Am., 1961, vol. 204, no. 5, p. 66.
Volkov, V.V., Kolesnikova, L.N., and Shelepin, Yu.E., Frequency-Contrast Characteristics and Visual Acuity in Ophthalmologic Practice, Oftal'mol. Zh., 1983, no. 3, p. 142.
Campbell, F.W. and Robson, J.G., Application of Fourier Analyses to the Visibility of Gratings, J. Physiol., 1968, vol. 197, p. 551.
Blakemore, G. and Campbell, F.W., On the Existence in Human Visual System of Neurons Selectively Sensitive to the Orientation and Size of Retinal Image, J. Physiol., 1969, vol. 203, no. 1, p. 237.
Ejima, Y. and Takahashi, S., Facilitatory and Inhibitory Aftereffect of Spatially Localized Grating Adaptation, Vision Res., 1984, vol. 24, no. 9, p. 979.
Polat, U. and Sagi, D., Lateral Interactions between Spatial Channels: Suppression and Facilitation Revealed by Lateral Masking Experiment, Vision Res., 1993, vol. 23, no. 7, p. 993.
Bondarko, V.M. and Danilova, M.V., Spatial Frequency Interactions in the Human Visual System at the Resolution Limit: Practice Effects, Perception, 1999, vol. 28, suppl., p. 76.
Semenov, L.A., Chernova, N.D., and Bondarko, V.M., The Measurement of Visual Acuity and the Crowding Effect in Children between the Ages of Three and Nine Years, Fiziol. Chel., 2000, vol. 26, no. 1, p. 21.
Hyvärinen, L., Zrenie u detei: normal'noe i s narusheniyami (Vision in Children: Normal and Impaired), St. Petersburg: Peterburg-XXI Vek, 1996.
Vaschenko, D.I. and Rozhkova, G.I., Dynamics of Visual Acuity in Schoolchildren, Perception, 1998, vol. 27, suppl., p. 203.
Farber, D.A., Semenova, L.K., Alferova, V.V., et al., Strukturno-funktsional'naya organizatsiya razvivayushchegosya Mozga (Structural-Functional Organization of the Developing Brain), Leningrad: Nauka, 1990.
Yuodelis, C. and Hendrickson, A., A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Human Fovea during Development, Vision Res., 1986, vol. 26, p. 847.
Rozenblyum, Yu.Z., Refraction, Accomodation, and Vision, in Klinicheskaya fiziologiya zreniya (Clinical Physiology of Vision), Moscow: AO Rusomed, 1993, p. 180.
Atkinson, J., Review of Human Visual Development: Crowding and Dyslexia, in Vision and Visual Dysfunction, Cronly-Dillon, J.R., Ed., and in Vision and Visual Dyslexia, Stein, J.F., Ed., 1991.
Danilova, M.V. and Bondarko, V.M., Foveal Crowding Effect: Masking Interactions or Nature of the Highest Spatial-Frequency Mechanism?, Perception, 2000, vol. 29, suppl., p. 51.
Hubel, D.H. and Wiesel, T.N., Receptive Fields, Binocular Interaction and Functional Architecture in the Cat's Visual Cortex, J. Physiol., 1962, vol. 160, p. 251.
Glezer, V.D., Zrenie i myshlenie (Vision and Thinking), Leningrad: Nauka, 1985.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Semenov, L.A., Chernova, N.D. & Bondarko, V.M. Age-Related Dynamics of Discrimination of the Orientation of Rectangular Gratings at the Resolution Limit of the Visual System. Human Physiology 28, 383–390 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016597611954
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016597611954