Color Adaptation of Spatial Frequency Detectors in the Human Visual System

Abstract

Observers exposed alternately to a vertical grating of one spatial frequency in red light and a vertical grating of different spatial frequency in green light subsequently report frequency-specific color aftereffects when shown gratings in white light. Aftereffects occur, however, only when inspection gratings differ in spatial frequency by one octave or more and the frequency of at least one grating is above 3 cycles per degree. This spatial selectivity of the aftereffect is considered in terms of a neural adaptation model incorporating evidence on the tuning of spatial frequency detectors in the human visual system.