Spatial interaction in human cone vision

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Abstract
The adaptation state of a uniformly illuminated patch of human cone retina was determined by finding the threshold for a small, brief light spot seen flashing in its centre. When the illuminated patch of the retina is increased in diameter, the adaptation state is first raised, and beyond a critical background diameter, lowered. This is interpreted as a manifestation of excitatory and inhibitory interaction of adaptation stimuli: illumination of retinal regions in the immediate neighbourhood of the area tested acts to raise the adaptation level, and of those further removed acts to lower it. The critical area beyond which adapting light produces inhibition is about 5 min. of arc in diameter in the eye''s object space for foveal observation. For peripheral cone vision it increases much as the minimum angle of resolution. The inhibiting action of outlying areas is substantially reduced, or perhaps even eliminated, by lowering the background luminance. Surrounding the retinal patch with a pair of juxtaposed narrow concentric black and white rings superimposed on a uniform field, simulating a border, irrespective of diameter, does not influence the threshold of the probing spot. This argues against a possible threshold raising effect of the border of the background. The inhibiting action on a patch of cone retina of a surrounding annulus occurs only when the annulus is seen by the same eye and not when it is seen by the other eye: the site of inhibitory interaction is, therefore, retinal.