SPATIOTEMPORAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY OF EARLY VISION

Based on the spatial and temporal statistics of natural images, a theory is developed that specifies spatiotemporal filters that maximize the flow of information through noisy channels of limited dynamic range. Sensitivities resulting from these spatiotemporal filters are very similar to the human spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity, including the dependence on ambient light intensity. The theory predicts several psychophysical laws: Ferry-Porter's law, the de Vries-Rose law, Weber's law, Bloch's law, Ricco's law, and Piper's law.