Color Blindness Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Color Blindness, including details on causes, classification, red-green and blue-yellow color blindness, diagnosis.

Chapter 6 In honour of Lothar Spillmann - filling-in, wiggly lines, adaptation, and aftereffects.

Anstis S

Department of Psychology, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA.

I have studied a number of visual phenomena that Lothar Spillmann has already elucidated. These include: Neon spreading: when a small red cross is superimposed on intersecting black lines, the red cross seems to spread out into an illusory disk. Unlike the Hermann grid, neon spreading is relatively unaffected when the black lines are curved or wiggly. This suggests that the Hermann grid, but not neon spreading, involves long-range interactions. Neon spreading can be shown in random-dot patterns, even without intersections. It is strongest when the red crosses are equiluminous with the gray background. Adaptation, aftereffects, and filling-in: direct and induced aftereffects of color, motion, and dimming. Artificial scotomata and filling-in: the "dam" theory is false. Staring at wiggly lines or irregularly scattered dots makes them gradually appear straighter, or more regularly spaced. I present evidence that irregularity is actually a visual dimension to which the visual system can adapt. Conjectures on the nature of peripheral fading and of motion-induced blindness. Some failed experiments on correlated visual inputs and cortical plasticity.

Published 9 October 2006 in Prog Brain Res, 155: 93-108.
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