title: Spectral sensitivities of the human cones.
abstract: Transient chromatic adaptation produced by an abrupt change of background color permits an easier and closer approach to cone isolation than does steady-state adaptation. Using this technique, we measured middle-wave-sensitive (M)-cone spectral sensitivities in 11 normals and 2 protanopes and long-wavelength-sensitive (L-) cone spectral sensitivities in 12 normals and 4 deuteranopes. Although there is great individual variation in the adapting intensity required for effective isolation, there is little variation in the shape of the M- and L-cone spectral-sensitivity functions across subjects. At middle and long wavelengths, our mean spectral sensitivities agree extremely well with dichromatic spectral sensitivities and with the M- and L-cone fundamentals of Smith and Pokorny [Vision Res. 15, 161 (1975)] and of Vos and Walraven [Vision Res. 11, 799 (1971)], both of which are based on the CIE (Judd-revised) 2 degrees color-matching functions (CMF's). But the agreement with the M-cone fundamentals of Estévez [Ph.D. dissertation, Amsterdam University (1979)] and of Vos et al. [Vision Res. 30, 936 (1990)], which are based on the Stiles-Burch 2 degrees CMF's, is poor. Using our spectral-sensitivity data, tritanopic color-matching data, and Stile's pi 3, we derive new sets of cone fundamentals. The consistency of the proposed fundamentals based on either the Stiles-Burch 2 degrees CMF's or the CIE 10 degrees large-field CMF's with each other, with protanopic and deuteranopic spectral sensitivities, with tritanopic color-matching data, and with short-wavelength-sensitive (S-) cone spectral-sensitivity data suggests that they are to be preferred over fundamentals based on the CIE 2 degrees CMF's.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stockman
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: MacLeod
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003117:Color Vision Defects / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005425:Flicker Fusion; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D015591:Microspectrophotometry; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology