Rod temporal channels

Vision Res. 1996 Feb;36(4):613-9. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(96)89254-6.

Abstract

Mechanisms underlying rod temporal contrast sensitivity have been considered in terms of a fast retinal signal predominating at mesopic levels and a slower retinal signal predominating at scotopic levels. Here we use a small signal masking method, which has previously been used to delineate the cone-mediated cortical temporal channels, to investigate their rod-mediated cortical counterparts. The results suggest that there are three different rod-mediated cortical temporal channels, one which is lowpass and two which are bandpass. These mechanisms co-exist at all light levels and their relative sensitivity depend on the stimulus spatio-temporal frequency.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Color Vision Defects
  • Contrast Sensitivity / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Perceptual Masking / physiology
  • Psychophysics
  • Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / physiology*
  • Sensory Thresholds / physiology
  • Spectrophotometry
  • Time Factors
  • Visual Cortex / physiopathology
  • Visual Pathways