PubMed · 890052
Visual adaptation.
Abstract
1) The eye may be regarded as an automatic camera that keeps the average sensitivity near the middle of the working range. 2) Nerve signals are contrast-coded, and hence are not changed by changes in general illumination. 3) Rod thresholds can be raised three-fold by a background from which only 1% of the rods have caught one quantum. 4) Adaptation is of two kinds a) to backgrounds (the Weber-Fechner relation) and b) to bleachings which is entirely different. 5) After bleaching the threshold is raised as though a bright background were present. The positive after-image following bleaching has quantitatively the properties of that bright background. 6) The visual incapacity after bleaching seems a pointless visual disaster.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
W A Rushton. 1977-06-29. Visual adaptation.. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00535812
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.