Psychophysical 1-D wavelet analysis and the appearance of visual contrast illusions

Psychophysical representations built by Gabor visual channels described in complex analytic form are shown to be related to the wavelet transform of visual stimuli under empirically plausible bandwidth constraints. Analysis of the psychophysical wavelet representations of one-dimensional stimuli eliciting some visual contrast illusions (Mach bands and the Craik-Cornsweet-O´Brien illusion) reveals that qualitative aspects of the selective appearance of these illusions can be explained as a natural consequence of the functional characteristics of early visual processing