Visual resolution with periodically interrupted light.

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Abstract
By using interrupted light and measuring the intensity required for resolution as a function of the light-time fraction in the interruption cycle, it was found that visual acuity and brightness discrimination bear a different functional relation to the same independent variable. The resolution contours so obtained lay significantly below the brightness contour as expressed by the Talbot-Plateau Law. Extensive results were obtained from 3 observers, under different conditions of image size, retinal location, flash frequency, and wave-length composition. It was concluded that visual acuity cannot be a form of brightness discrimination, although the 2 processes may be related. Specifically, this means that the quantitative generalizations applicable in one case need not necessarily be applicable in the other. Peaking of the image may occur because the retinal elements in the center of the fluctuating distr. of intensities are non-refractory for a relatively greater portion of the time when the light is interrupted than when it is steady, resulting in an increase in the relative proportion of neural impulses coming from this central portion. The data cannot be accounted for at a strictly retinal level; any explanation must take account of neural processes central to the retina.

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