Chromatic rod-cone interaction during dark adaptation.

Abstract

Chromatic rod-cone interaction in mesopic vision was investigated by measuring chromaticity coordinates of spectral lights 3 deg extrafoveally during long-term dark adaptation, under conditions where the eye was chromatically adapted. It was concluded that (a) the chromaticity shift obtained between the cone-plateau period and the dark-adapted state is due, at least under some conditions, to rod signals elicited by the test stimulus, (b) the chromaticity points of cone-mediated colors may change in different directions in the chromaticity diagram as an effect of the rod intrusion, (c) cone-cone and rod-cone color-mixture processing may, at least under some conditions, be different, and (d) chroma-related processes of rods and cones tend to suppress each other, with rods dominating at low and cones at high mesopic intensities.