Abstract

Measurement of the magnitude of the principal component of the electrical response of the human eye to an intense flash of light, as a function of time in the dark following five minutes of light adaptation to an extremely bright field, shows an increasing response as a function of time in the dark. The curve levels off at a plateau before a second abrupt rise at about seven minutes in the dark. This break in the curve resembles the rod-cone break in the psychophysical dark-adaptation curve, in that a decrease in the level of prior light adaptation reduces the prominence of the break or even eliminates it. The variation in the initial dark electrical response after various time intervals of prior light adaptation resembles the variation in cone threshold after various durations of light adaptation.

© 1954 Optical Society of America

Human Reaction Time During Dark Adaptation*

S. MacLeod and N. R. Bartlett
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 44(5) 374-379 (1954)

Effect of Different Preadapting Luminances on the Resolution of Visual Detail During Dark Adaptation*

John Lott Brown
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 44(1) 48-55 (1954)

Selective Adaptation of Components of the Human Electroretinogram

John C. Armington and Frederick C. Thiede
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 44(10) 779-786 (1954)

Changes in the Human Electroretinogram during Early Dark Adaptation*

Heiichiro Kawabata
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(3) 386-390 (1963)

Electrical Responses of the Light-Adapted Eye*

John C. Armington
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 43(6) 450-456 (1953)