Melanopsin enhances image persistence

• Published in: Current biology Vol. 33; no. 23; pp. 5048 - 5056.e4
• Main Authors: Woelders, Tom, Allen, Annette E., Lucas, Robert J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 04.12.2023
• Subjects: Animals; color; color vision; cones; electrophysiology; Humans; image persistence; ipRGC; Mammals; melanopsin; Photic Stimulation; Retina - physiology; Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells - physiology; Rod Opsins - physiology; trichromatic; Troxler fading; Vision, Ocular; visual perception; melanopsin; Troxler fading; color; cones; trichromatic; image persistence; ipRGC
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.039
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445

Contributions of the inner retinal photopigment melanopsin to human visual perception are incompletely understood. Here, we use a four-primary display to produce stimuli differing in melanopsin versus cone contrast in psychophysical paradigms in eight subjects with normal color vision. We address two predictions from electrophysiological recordings of the melanopsin system in non-human mammals: melanopsin influences color and/or supports image persistence under visual fixation. We first construct chromatic contrast sensitivity contours for stimuli differing in melanopsin excitation presented as a central annulus (10°) or peripheral (22.5°) spot. We find that although including melanopsin contrast produces modest changes in the average chromatic coordinates in both eccentricities, this occurs equally at low (0.5 Hz) and higher (3.75 Hz) temporal frequencies, arguing that it reflects divergence in cone spectral sensitivity in our participants from that captured in standardized cone fundamentals rather than a melanopsin contribution to color. We continue to ask whether the established ability of melanopsin to sustain firing of visual neurons under extended light exposure has a visual correlate, using the optical illusion of Troxler fading in which blurred spots in periphery disappear during visual fixation. We find that introducing additional melanopsin contrast (+28% Michelson contrast) to either bright or dark spots increases fading latency by 35% ± 8.8% and 41% ± 13.6%, respectively. Our data argue that the primary contribution of melanopsin to perception under these conditions is not to provide a color percept but rather to enhance persistence of low spatial frequency patterns during visual fixation. •Melanopsin enhances image persistence for low spatiotemporal frequency patterns•The image persistence originates from melanopsin rather than ipRGC spectral opponency•Melanopsin provides no substantial color percept Woelders et al. demonstrate that melanopsin enhances image persistence, especially for low spatiotemporal details. Their color-matching experiments, using high melanopsin contrast metamers at frequencies both within and surpassing melanopsin’s temporal sensitivity range, reveal that melanopsin does not provide a substantial color percept.