PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON MECHANISMS OF COLOR RECEPTION IN NORMAL AND COLOR-BLIND SUBJECTS

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Abstract
The electrical excitability of the human retina was measured under weak light adaptation at varying intervals after exposure to a bright patch, taking electric phosphene as the index. The percentage increase in electrical excitability after illumination was always greater when a black patch and the white test-patch were presented in succession,than when the white patch was presented alone. No such striking increase was found when, instead of using the black patch, the whole visual field of the subject was temporarily darkened. Therefore this phenomenon is not due to dark adaptation, but due to successive brightness contrast. When dark and bright patches were presented simultaneously in juxtaposition, the increase in electrical excitability was always greater than when the bright patch alone was presented (simultaneous brightness contrast). The excitability curve or the time course of excitability variation after removal of test-light was shown to be characteristic of the wave-length of the light used. When colored light and white light were presented in succession, an excitability curve closely similar to the one obtainable by isolated presentation of the complementary color was obtained (temporal color induction). In further expts., spatial color induction was proved in a similar way.
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