Flicker and Flicker Interactions in the Human Visual System

眼睛的光学装置将世界的图像聚焦到视网膜上，视网膜包含四种类型的光感受器：蓝色、绿色和红色的视锥细胞和单一类型的视杆。目前正在进行实验，以了解来自视网膜三种视锥感光细胞类型的信号是如何组织的，以及视觉系统的早期阶段如何组织和处理关于颜色的信息。传统观点认为，来自光感受器的信息通过大脑中的两条主要视觉路径传递：一条是迟缓的，传递关于颜色的信息；另一条是快速的，传递关于强度的信息。这项研究项目中正在进行的具体研究使用不同颜色的闪烁光和闪烁相互作用来解决关于这两条视觉路径的性质的具体问题，以及当视觉系统适应日益强烈的光时，它们的信号如何变化。这项研究提供了明确的证据，表明视觉系统的早期阶段比主流的心理物理模型所暗示的要复杂得多。

The optics of the eye focus an image of the world onto the retina which contains four types of photoreceptors: blue, green and red cones and a single type of rod. Experiments are being conducted to learn how the signals from the three cone photoreceptor types of the retina are organized and how the information about color is organized and processed by the early stages of the visual system. Conventional wisdom holds that information from photoreceptors is transmitted by two main visual pathways in the brain: one is sluggish and transmits information about color; the other is rapid and transmits information about intensity. The specific studies being conducted in this research project use flickering light of different colors and flicker interactions to address specific questions about the nature of these two visual pathways, as well as how their signals change when the visual system adapts to increasingly intense lights. This research is providing clear evidence that the early stages of the visual system are more complex than the prevailing psychophysical models suggest.