Abstract
Purpose:
Stimuli presented either to the fovea or to the peripheral retina differ in color, yet in everyday living we usually do not view stimuli in isolation as we do in the laboratory. How is color perception determined when a stimulus covers both the fovea and the peripheral retina? Does the fovea determine the overall perception, does the peripheral retina determine the overall perception, or does the overall perception represent an average of the different retinal areas? This study investigated how information from the fovea and peripheral retina are combined to give one uniform perception.
Methods:
Monochromatic (420-660 nm) circular (1°, 23°) or annular (17° inner diameter, 23° outer diameter) stimuli were equated to 1.3 log td and presented for 500 ms. After 30 min dark adaptation the four observers described their hue perceptions using the “4 + 1” hue-naming procedure.
Results:
Similar to previous findings from our laboratory, the hue perceptions for the 1° foveal stimulus differed from that for the annular stimulus. In particular, the annular stimulus appeared greener across the visible spectrum and more yellow and saturated in the midspectral region of the visible spectrum compared to the foveal stimulus. The hue-naming data were strikingly similar between the annular and 23° circular stimuli.
Conclusions:
Initial findings indicate that when a stimulus covers both the foveal and peripheral regions of the retina, the peripheral retina determines the overall hue perception of the stimulus.