The electroretinogram evoked by the excitation of human foveal cones

Abstract

A 2[degree] test stimulus foveally fixed and viewed against a blue background (40[degree] in extent and producing 2. 0 x 104 scoto-pic td of retinal illuminance) evokes a small voltage which can be re-corded from the human eye with a conventional contact lens electrode if the test stimulus is flashed at a rate of 15 c/s, and the responses to at least several hundred flashes are averaged. The action spectrum of the response obtained in this way agrees reasonably well with the observer''s psychophysical foveal luminosity curve. For the peripheral retina, the action spectrum is similar to that of the fovea when allowance is made for differences in screening macular pigment. Such responses diminish when the test stimulus is focused on to the peripheral retina and disappear when the test light is focused on the blind spot. Therefore, the response to the test light fixated centrally is the result of the excitation only of cones mainly, if not exclusively, in the fovea. When the intensity of the background is reduced by a factor of 10, the action spectrum shows evidence of the effect of excitation of rods in the blue part of the spectrum and of cones in the red. These red and blue responses add linearly when combined together, provided they are adjusted to coincide in phase.