Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T22:33:16.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Opponent-color detection threshold asymmetries may result from reduction of ganglion cell subpopulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Vincent A. Billock
Affiliation:
College of Optometry, Ohio State University, Columbus,
Algis J. Vingrys
Affiliation:
College of Optometry, Ohio State University, Columbus,
P. Ewen King-Smith
Affiliation:
College of Optometry, Ohio State University, Columbus,

Abstract

Thresholds for psychophysically opposite stimuli—light and dark, or equiluminous red and green, or equiluminous blue and yellow—are usually nearly equal. This color threshold symmetry is sometimes violated in subjects who have optic nerve hypoplasia, a congenital loss of retinal ganglion cells. We describe a subject who has optic nerve hypoplasia, who exhibits large red-green and blue-yellow detection threshold asymmetries for equiluminous spots. Temporal and spatial integration for equiluminous red and green test spots also differed from normal; static perimetric thresholds for equiluminous green, blue, and yellow (but not red) spots lacked the normal “V” shaped minimum at the fovea. These asymmetries may relate to a developmental paucity of some ganglion cell subtypes. Optic nerve hypoplasia may allow the contributions to detection made by individual ganglion cell subtypes to be isolated psychophysically, in analogy to the study of cone spectral sensitivity in dichromats.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barlow, H.B. (1957). Incremental thresholds at low intensities considered as signal/noise discriminations. Journal of Physiology 136, 469488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barlow, H.B. (1958). Temporal and spatial summation in human vision at different background intensities. Journal of Physiology 141, 337350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Billock, V.A. (1991). The relationship between simple and double opponent cells. Vision Research 31, 3342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Billock, V.A., Ingling, C.R. Jr & Griosby, S.S. (1989 a). Demultiplexing the hue and luminance signals in r–g X cells. Optical Society of America 1989 Annual Meeting Technical Digest, 211.Google Scholar
Billock, V.A., Vingrys, A.J., King-Smith, P.E. & Benes, S.C. (1989 b). Opponent color detection threshold asymmetry– a novel color deficiency associated with optic nerve hypoplasia. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Suppl.) 30, 408.Google Scholar
Boulton, J.C. & Mullen, K.T. (1990). A case in which colour vision is no longer motion blind. Clinical Visual Sciences 5, 175184.Google Scholar
Brown, G.C. & Tasman, W.S. (1983). Congenital Anomalies of the Optic Disc. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Chioran, G.M., Sellers, K.L., Benes, S.C., Lubow, M., Dain, S.J. & King-Smith, P.E. (1985). Color mixture thresholds measured on a color television –a new method for analysis, classification and diagnosis of neuro-ophthalmic disease. Documenta Ophthalmologica 61, 119135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Monasterio, F.M. & Gouras, P. (1975). Functional properties of ganglion cells of the rhesus monkey retina. Journal of Physiology 251, 167195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Valois, R.L. & De Valois, K.K. (1993). A multi-stage color model. Vision Research 33, 10531065.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Francois, J. & DeRouck, A. (1976). Electroretinographic study of the hypoplasia of the optic nerve. Ophthalmologica 172, 308330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grigsby, S.S., Vingrys, A.J., Benes, S.C. & King-Smith, P.E. (1991). Correlation of chromatic, spatial, and temporal sensitivity in optic nerve disease. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 32, 32523262.Google ScholarPubMed
Hotchkiss, M.L. & Green, W.R. (1979). Optic nerve aplasia and hypoplasia. Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology 16, 225240.Google ScholarPubMed
Ingling, C.R. Jr & Martinez, E. (1983). The spatiochromatic signal of the r–g channel. In Colour Vision: Physiology and Psycho-physics, ed. Mollon, J.D. & Sparpe, L.T., pp. 433444. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
King-Smith, P.E. (1984). Efficient threshold estimates from yes-no procedures using few (about 10) trials. American Journal of Optometry and Physiological Optics 61, 119P.Google Scholar
King-Smith, P.E., Chioran, G.M., Sellers, K.L. & Alverez, S.L. (1983). Normal and deficient colour discrimination analyzed by colour television. In Colour Vision: Physiology and Psychophysics, ed. Mollon, J.D. & Sharpe, L.T., pp. 167172. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
King-Smith, P.E., Vingrys, A.J. & Benes, S.C. (1987). Visual thresholds measured with color video monitors. Color Research and Application 12, 7380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King-Smith, P.E., Vingrys, A.J., Benes, S.C., Grigsby, S.S. & Billock, V.A. (1989). Detection of light and dark, red and green, blue and yellow. In Seeing Contour and Colour, ed. Kulikowski, J.J., pp. 379389. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Lambert, S.R., Hoyt, C.S. & Narahara, M.M. (1987). Optic nerve hypoplasia. Survey of Ophthalmology 32, 19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laming, D. (1986). Sensory Analysis. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mann, I. (1957). Developmental Abnormalities of the Eye. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Merigan, W.H. & Eskin, T.A. (1986). Spatiotemporal vision of macaques with severe loss of Pβ ganglion cells. Vision Research 26, 17511761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosier, M.A., Lieberman, M.F., Green, W.R. & Knox, D.L. (1978). Hypoplasia of the optic nerve. Archives of Ophthalmology 96, 14371442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pokorny, J., Smith, V.C., Verriest, G. & Pinckers, A.J.L.G. (1979). Congenital and Acquired Color Vision Defects. New York: Grune and Stratton, pp. 230231.Google Scholar
Rushton, W.A.H. (1964). Color blindness and cone pigments: The Prentice Lecture. American Journal of Optometry 41, 265282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schein, S.J. (1988). Anatomy of macaque fovea and spatial densities of neurons in foveal representation. Journal of Comparative Neurology 269, 479505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiller, P. (1992). The on and off-channels of the visual system. Trends in Neuroscience 15, 8692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiller, P., Logothetis, N.K. & Charles, E.R. (1990). Functions of the colour-opponent and broad-band channels of the visual system. Nature 343, 6870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sellers, K.L., Chioran, G.M., Dain, S.J., Benes, S.C., Lubow, M., Rammohan, K. & King-Smith, P.E. (1986). Red-green mixture thresholds in congenital and acquired color defects. Vision Research 26, 10831097.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Short, A.D. (1966). Decremental and incremental visual thresholds. Journal of Physiology 185, 646654.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sprague, J.B. & Wilson, W.B. (1981). Electrophysiologic findings in bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia. Archives of Ophthalmology 99, 10281029.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verrtest, G., Van Laethem, J. & Uvuis, A. (1982). A new assessment of the normal ranges of the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test scores. American Journal of Ophthalmology 93, 635642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, A.B. (1986). Temporal sensitivity. In Handbook of Perception and Human Performance, Vol. 1, ed. Boff, K.R., Kaufman, L. & Thomas, J.P., pp. 6.16.40. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Watson, A.B. & Pelli, D.P. (1983). Quest: A Bayesian adaptive psychometric method. Perception and Psychophysics 33, 113120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whinery, R.D. & Blondi, F.C. (1963). Hypoplasia of the optic nerve: A clinical and histopathological correlation. Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology 67, 733738.Google Scholar
Zrenner, E. (1983). Neurophysiological Aspects of Color Vision in Primates. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar