The effect of emotional charge of visual stimuli on cerebral activity was investigated through ERPs. This emotional charge is explained through two dimensions: arousal (relaxing-activating) and valence (attractive-repulsive). Stimuli were 12 paintings selected through questionnaires: three activating-attractive pictures (A+ group), three activating-repulsive (A-), three relaxing (R), and three ...

Adult Japanese quail display left-eye/right-hemisphere dominance in visually guided sexual tracking. In 2 experiments, the authors set out to answer if this functional cerebral asymmetry is modifiable by posthatch monocular deprivation. In Experiment 1, the left or the right eye of 2-day old quail were closed for 70 days. Quail were run in a left- or a right-turning runway to obtain access to a...

Under conditions in which the visual system cannot reconcile dissimilar images from the two eyes, perception typically alternates between the two half-images-a process known as binocular rivalry. We report a real-time, steady-state VEP method that is a sensitive detector of the continuous alternations in perceptual dominance across the eyes. This method works by labelling each half-image with a...

Visual statistical learning (VSL) is the ability to extract the joint and conditional probabilities of shapes co-occurring during passive viewing of complex visual configurations. Evidence indicates that even infants are sensitive to these regularities (e.g., Kirkham et al., 2002). However, there is continuing debate as to whether VSL is accompanied by conscious awareness of the statistical reg...

We report VEP studies which delineate interactions between chromatic and luminance contrast signals. We examined responses to sinusoidal luminance gratings undergoing 4-Hz square-wave contrast reversal, upon which standing gratings with various admixtures of luminance and chromatic contrast were alternately superimposed and withdrawn. The presence of the standing grating induced a VEP component...

In a previous report we described how the state of attention of the subject was an important factor in determining the amplitude of the visual evoked response (VER). Stabilization of the response is an obvious desideratum in any attempt at studying the visual system with the aid of the VER. The present report deals with attempts to stabilize the VER by achieving a constant level of attention. T...

It has been found that humans are able to distinguish colours without luminance cues by about 2-4 months of age and that sensitivity to colour difference develops during childhood, reaching a peak around adolescence. This prolonged period of maturation is reflected by improvements in psychophysical threshold measures and by the VEP characteristics of morphology, latency and amplitude. An intra-...

The Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (TVPS) was used to determine if children with cerebral palsy demonstrated problems in visual perception on a motor-free visual perception test. Twenty-four children with cerebral palsy and 24 normal children, all of normal intelligence, were given the TVPS. Results showed that children with cerebral palsy attained significantly lower mean perceptual quotient...