title: Senescence of spatial chromatic contrast sensitivity. II. Matching under natural viewing conditions.
abstract: Age-related changes in the spatial chromatic contrast sensitivity function of detection, measured along S and L - M cone axes, were demonstrated in a companion paper [Hardy et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22, 49 (2005)]. Here senescent changes in chromatic contrast appearance were assessed by contrast-matching functions (CMFs). Luminance and chromatic CMFs (S and L - M axes) were compared for younger (age 18-31 yr) and older (age 65-75 yr) trichromatic subjects by using stimuli that were perceptually anchored to the same physical standard contrasts. Subjects matched the contrast of test gratings of various spatial frequencies (0.5-8 cycles per degree) to the standard stimuli under natural viewing conditions. Because of changes in the visual system with age, the standard stimuli were closer to threshold for older subjects; however, in general, the shapes of the CMFs were similar for both groups. The results suggest that the perception of relative contrasts across spatial frequencies is stable with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California 95817, USA.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Delahunt
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okajima
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Werner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004056:Differential Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity