Response saturation of short-wavelength cone pathways controlled by color-opponent mechanisms.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C F Stromeyer.
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Transient and sustained visual mechanisms were studied with single, flickering bars of various widths. Wide bars were largely detected on the basis of temporal luminance transients whereas thin bars were detected on the basis of the sustained contrast. A rapidly flickering uniform field selectively masked wide flickering bars, which suggests that different mechanisms detect wide versus thin flickering bars. For coarse spatial patterns, stimulus onsets were slightly more visible than stimulus offsets, and the response to onsets and offsets approximately summated.
Response saturation of blue-sensitive cone pathways was studied by measuring increment thresholds for violet test flashes on flashed violet fields in the presence of a steady yellow "auxiliary" field of constant radiance. Adding intense yellow field flashes to the violet field flash could eliminate or reduce response saturation (greatly reduce threshold), whereas "negative" yellow field flashes drove the mechanism to further saturation. The response saturation is thus not, in general, controlled exclusively by independent blue-sensitive cones but by spectrally opponent mechanisms that receive opposite-signed signals from blue-sensitive cones and from green-or red-sensitive cones. These results add to a growing number of studies that demonstrate that detection of signals from blue-sensitive cones is largely through a color-opponent pathway.
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Spatial-frequency masking was studied with briefly pulsed (25 ms) vertical gratings. The mask was a noise grating, and the test pattern was a sinusoidal grating. A low-frequency band of noise masked a low- but not high-spatial-frequency test grating when the patterns were presented simultaneously. A high-frequency band of noise did not mask a low-frequency test grating when the patterns were presented simultaneously or when the mask was presented after the test pattern (backward masking). Masking was, however, observed when the mask or test pattern was of sufficiently high contrast so that the stimuli had nonlinear distortion and thus produced DC shifts of the field luminance.
For long periods observers fixated low spatial frequency coloured gratings. Black and white test gratings of the same spatial frequency and orientation as the adapting gratings appeared coloured with the hue complementary to the adapting patterns when the dark test stripes fell on retinal areas previously occupied by the dark adapting stripes; no colour or very weak colour was seen when the test gratings were reversed in phase (contrast reversed). No colour aftereffects were produced with coloured gratings that lacked luminance contrast. The selectivity to the polarity of local luminance contrast can be explained by mechanisms that respond conjointly to colour and luminance contrast. The aftereffects are selective to spatial phase.
After prolonged fixation of coloured gratings of low spatial frequency, images of the gratings can be elicited up to 90 min thereafter when the colour of a spatially homogeneous test field is suddenly changed. Only adapting gratings with luminance contrast induce clear aftereffects. Control experiments rule out afterimages as an explanation of the aftereffects.
Evidence for motion-selective mechanisms sensitive to high spatial frequencies (e.g., 15 c/deg) was obtained via direction-specific adaptation and measurements of the threshold ratios for moving and counterphase flickering gratings.
Green and red flashes of light will differentially stimulate the middle- and long-wavelength sensitive cones. Interaction of cone signals was studied by measuring increment thresholds for combinations of green and red flashes on a yellow adapting field. When the yellow adapting field was at 10.000 trolands (td), green and red incremental flashes (1 degree, 200-msec duration) produced cancellation when presented simultaneously and facilitation when presented sequentially. A green incremental flash (1.15 degrees, 200 msec, 5000-td adaptation field) and red decremental flash, or vice versa, produced facilitation when presented simultaneously. The results can be explained by color-differencing, opponent-mechanisms. The cancellation effect for the simultaneous incremental flashes largely disappeared when the flashes were exposed briefly (10 msec) or reduced in size (0.04 degrees). It is unlikely that the stimuli were exclusively detected by achromatic, luminance channels, as suggested by previous work, since observers could partially distinguish the hue of threshold flashes of 570- and 590-nm light (0.04 degrees, 10 msec) on a bright yellow field.
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