title: Does L/M cone opponency disappear in human periphery?
abstract: We have assessed the optimal cone contrast sensitivity across eccentricity in human vision of the two cone-opponent mechanisms [L/M or red-green, and S/(L + M) or blue-yellow] and the luminance mechanism. We have used a novel stimulus, termed a 'sinring', that is a radially modulated sine-wave arc, Gaussian enveloped in both angular and radial directions. This stimulus overcomes the problem inherent in Gabor stimuli of confounding stimulus spatial frequency, size, and eccentricity and so allows contrast sensitivity to be tracked accurately into the periphery. Our results show that L/M cone opponency declines steeply across the human periphery and becomes behaviourally absent by 25-30 deg (in the nasal field). This result suggests that any L/M cone-opponent neurons found in primate peripheral retina beyond this limit are unlikely to be significant for colour contrast detection measured behaviourally.
authors.affiliation: McGill Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University, 687 Pine Avenue West, H4-14, Montréal, Québec H3A 1A1, Canada. Kathy.mullen@mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Kathy T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011601:Psychophysics; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*