Figure 1
From: Spontaneous and training-induced cortical plasticity in MD patients: Hints from lateral masking
Schematic of the interaction between perceptual field (PF) size and collinear configuration as a function of eccentricity. X-axis represents eccentricity from central fixation. In foveal vision, the standard target-to-flankers distance that induces facilitation is 3λ (i.e., 3 times the wavelength of the Gabor patches of the configuration). In the present study, the spatial frequency was kept fixed at 1 cpd, therefore λ = 1 cpd. In this case, this distance also corresponds to the PF size and facilitation is considered as a between-PFs effect. When the same stimulus is presented in peripheral vision, the PF size increases, so that the 3λ configuration elicits within-PF, collinear inhibition. In order to restore facilitation, flankers must be placed outside the PF. Previous studies19,20,21 showed that this critical distance is 8λ at an eccentricity of 4°.
