Chromatic suppression of cone inputs to the luminance flicker mechanism

Abstract

Eisner and MacLeod [ J. opt. Soc. Am. 71, 705–718 (1981)] showed that intense green and red chromatic adapting fields may suppress respectively the M and L cone input to the luminance mechanism by a factor considerably greater than Weber's law. We obtained evidence for such chromatic suppression by measuring complete detection contours for different ratios of red and green test lights presented in rapid flicker in the center of a uniform field. The detection contours represent thresholds as the quantal modulation of the M and L cones normalized by the quantal catch owing to the field. Luminance flicker mechanisms were identified by sections of the contours where detection was controlled by a linear sum of the M and L cone test signals. The slope of these sections indicated that intense red fields selectively suppressed the L cone input to the luminance mechanism by a factor greater than Weber's law; evidence was much less firm for an analogous suppression of the M cone input by intense green fields. The shape of the detection contours also suggests that intense red fields, which differentially light-adapt the M and L cones, may produce a moderate temporal phase-shift between the M and L cone signals. The shape of the temporal MTF of the M cone and the L cone input to the luminance mechanism may be determined at the cone stage, with the absolute sensitivity (vertical scaling) being partially dependent on selective chromatic suppression of the cone inputs owing to the intense chromatic field. Luminance and red-green chromatic temporal sensitivity functions are presented in terms of the M and L cone quantal modulations. Chromatic sensitivity progressively rises above luminance sensitivity as temporal frequency is gradually lowered below 15 Hz, with the consequence that ‘contrast sensitivity’ may be much higher for color than for luminance.