Kraft Caroline, Leube Alexander, Ohlendorf Arne, Wahl Siegfried
J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2019 Apr 1;36(4):B77-B84. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.36.000B77.
As ocular chromatic aberration was suspected to cue contrast adaptation in human vision, the purpose of this study was to investigate contrast adaptation under monochromatic light conditions. Single and complex frequency adaptation stimuli were used, and monochromatic conditions were achieved using band pass filters with short (470±2 ), medium (530±2 ), and long (630±2 ) transmission wavelengths. Post-adaptational contrast sensitivity was shown to be significantly decreased for all wavelength conditions for the single frequency stimulus. A significant difference of contrast adaptation between short and long wavelengths was found. Consistently, adaptation led to a significant decrease in contrast sensitivity for the complex frequency stimulus. To conclude, contrast adaptation under mesopic illumination occurs independently of the longitudinal chromatic aberration of the eye; it can be inferred that this mechanism can be used to distinguish between the sign of optical defocus in poly- and monochromatic light conditions.
