Flicker adaptation. I. Effect on visual sensitivity to temporal fluctuations of light intensity.

Abstract Human sensitivity to temporal fluctuations of light intensity was found to be lower after adaptation to a flickering light than it was after adaptation to a steady light of the same time-average retinal illuminance. Such a difference of sensitivity defines a flicker adaptation phenomenon. The magnitude of the flicker adaptation effect was used as an index of the strength of visual interactions that occur between stimuli of different temporal frequencies. On the basis of the results obtained it was tentatively concluded that the temporal aspects of visual signals are processed by more than one visual channel or filter, each with its own frequency-response characteristic.

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