Measuring the Luminance Contrast Sensitivity Function in Peripheral Vision

ABSTRACT We measured luminance contrast sensitivity functions (CSF) of four subjects by using Gabor stimuli up to 56°, 49°, 84°, and 63° in the nasal, superior, temporal, and inferior directions, respectively, of the left‐eye visual field. The present measured data covered a broader range of eccentricity than those in the previous studies. The findings of this study align with previous research in terms of anisotropy in eccentricity directions. In addition, these reveal an intriguing pattern: a slight decrease in contrast sensitivity with increasing eccentricity at near eccentricity, followed by a rapid decline at eccentricity and low spatial frequency. This pattern is not predicted by 10 CSF models proposed by previous studies based on measurements in narrow eccentricity ranges. Those CSF models showed higher sensitivities at far eccentricity in comparison with our measured data. This discrepancy suggests that the CSF models with a single term for eccentricity proposed by previous studies were insufficient to fit measured data up to far eccentricities.