Searching for lung nodules. A comparison of human performance with random and systematic scanning models.

The contrast sensitivity of the retina is greatest in the center and decreases rapidly toward the periphery. Therefore, the detection of low-contrast lung nodules depends upon the manner in which the image is sampled by retinal receptors as eye fixations jump across the image during scanning. The scanning performance of two radiologists was compared with two computed models, a systematic and a random scanner. Although radiologists do not seem to have random scanning patterns, their coverage of the image was matched more closely by the random model. This suggests that radiologists employ a scanning strategy that is designed to cover the image of the lungs in a minimum time using the smallest possible visual field. The visual field size that is most effective in detecting nodules during search has a radius of 3.5 degrees visual angle. Nodule detection may be limited by basic neurologic constraints on human scanning performance.