The study on neural contrast sensitivity function at temporal frequencies

The neural contrast sensitivity function (NCSF) of human eye at temporal frequencies is acquired with a new method in this paper. Firstly the human eye's contrast sensitivity function (CSF) at temporal frequencies is measured by means of travelling-wave stimuli, and the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the eye's optics is obtained by constructing the eye model of the subject. Then the NCSF at temporal frequencies is calculated with the two functions. It is shown that the overall value of the NCSF decreases as the temporal frequency increases. As the temporal frequency increases from 0 cycles per second (c/s) to 1 c/s, 16 c/s and 30 c/s, the NCSF curve changes from the band-pass shape to the low-pass, and then to almost monotonic variation. The attenuation factor of the NCSF, which represents the sensitivity of visual neural system to the temporal frequency, varies little as spatial frequency increases, while that of the CSF declines dramatically in the region of high spatial frequencies. Because it is the NCSF, rather than the CSF, that reflects the characteristics of visual neural system, the investigation of the NCSF at temporal frequency is more essentially.