Effects of intense visible radiation on the increment-threshold spectral sensitivity of the rhesus monkey eye

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 15; no. 11; pp. 1193 - 1204
• Main Authors: Harwerth, R.S., Sperling, H.G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.1975
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Color Perception; Haplorhini; Light; Macaca mulatta; Photoreceptor Cells - physiology; Reinforcement (Psychology); Retinal Pigments; Spectrophotometry; Time Factors; Vision, Ocular; Visual Fields
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/0042-6989(75)90162-5

The increment-threshold spectral sensitivity of adolescent rhesus monkeys was measured against intense spectral backgrounds, designed to isolate the response of each class of cones. The results are in good agreement with those produced by physical measurement techniques. Then functions were obtained against a 3400-td background of equal energy white before and after exposure for 1–2 hr/day for 6–10 consecutive days to spectral fields designed to maximally stimulate one of the receptor mechanisms. Two types of prolonged changes in sensitivity resulted:(1) an irreversible loss of sensitivity in only the violet and blue regions following exposure to narrow-band 463-nm light;(2) a change in sensitivity to the green through red region of the spectrum following exposure to longer wavelength light which in different animals began to recover after 1–6 days and was fully recovered by the 18th to 40th day. The effect of blue light exposure was fully accounted for by loss of response of the blue-sensitive, and of longer wavelength exposure by loss of response of the green-sensitive chromatic mechanism, because in each case the resultant functions could be modeled by omitting the one or the other.