Photoreceptor-specific light adaptation of critical flicker frequency in trichromat and dichromat observers

Author(s)

Huchzermeyer, Cord ^[1] ; Martins, Cristiane M. G. ^{[2, 1]} ; Nagy, Balazs ^{[2, 3]} ; Barboni, Mirella T. S. ^{[2, 4]} ; Ventura, Dora F. ^[2] ; Costa, Marcelo F. ^[2] ; Kremers, Jan ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Friedrich Alexander Univ Erlangen Nurnberg, Univ Hosp Erlangen, Dept Ophthalmol, Erlangen - Germany

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Expt Psychol, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[3] Budapest Univ Technol & Econ, Fac Mech Engn, Dept Mechatron Opt & Engn Informat, Budapest - Hungary

^[4] Semmelweis Univ, Dept Ophthalmol, Budapest - Hungary

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA A-OPTICS IMAGE SCIENCE AND VISION; v. 35, n. 4, p. B106-B113, APR 1 2018.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

The silent substitution paradigm offers possibilities to investigate and compare the temporal properties of mechanisms driven by single photoreceptor types, including the critical flicker frequency (CFF), in which the state of adaptation can be kept as invariant. We have (1) measured CFFs using triple silent substitutions to isolate L-, M-, and S-cone as well as rod-driven pathways under identical mean luminances and chromaticities; (2) repeated the CFF measurements at different mean luminances in order to validate the Ferry-Porter law (stating that the relationship between CFF and the log retinal illuminance-log I-is linear); and (3) compared these CFF versus log I functions for L-, M-, S-cone-, and rod-isolating stimuli for five trichromats and four X-linked dichromats (two protanopes, two deuteranopes). We show that the effects of luminance on the CFFs with silent substitution are comparable to those measured previously with chromatic stimuli. We found that M-cone-driven CFFs are smaller in trichromats than in protanopes. Furthermore, the slopes of the M-cone-driven CFF versus log I functions are smaller in trichromats. Possibly, the lacking L-cones are replaced by M-cones in these two protanopes and the CFF depends on cone density. Furthermore, we found that in trichromats, the slopes of the CFF-log I functions are smaller for M-cone-than for L-cone-isolating stimuli. This contradicts the current interpretation of the CFF-log I functions for chromatic stimuli, which states that CFF is mediated by the most strongly modulated photoreceptor type. Thus, the larger slopes that were previously found with medium-wavelength chromatic stimuli compared with long-wavelength chromatic stimuli seem to be the result of an addition of signals from different photoreceptors and do not necessarily result from M-cones being inherently faster. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/26818-2 - Development and implementation of visual evaluation methods: clinical applications and animal models
• Grantee: Dora Selma Fix Ventura
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 16/22007-5 - Optimization of the visual functional ability in patients with macular diseases using visual training programs
• Grantee: Mirella Telles Salgueiro Barboni
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• FAPESP's process: 12/51299-3 - International joint research on the development and application of electroretinographic and psychophysical methods for the assessment of postreceptoral on-and off-mechanisms in both chromatic and luminance retinal visual pathways in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and in Diabetes mellitus
• Grantee: Dora Selma Fix Ventura
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 14/06457-5 - Scientific instrumentation in vision research studies at the Vision Laboratory of IPUSP
• Grantee: Dora Selma Fix Ventura
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International