Perceptive field size in fovea and periphery of the light- and dark-adapted retina

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Abstract

The sizes of perceptive fields between 0 and 70° eccentricity were measured in the light- and dark-adapted human retina using the Westheimer paradigm. The results indicate that at photopic background luminances, centre size increases from a foveal diameter of less than 9′ to 1° at 10° eccentricity, then more slowly to 1.75° at 70° eccentricity. Total perceptive field size, on the other hand, increases more rapidly from 1° in the fovea to about 6.5° at 70° eccentricity. With dark-adaptation, the perceptive field surround becomes almost ineffective and centre size expands at all eccentricities by about a quarter of its photopic size. These results are compared to previous estimates of perceptive field sizes obtained with other methods and their relationship to the retino-cortical mignification factor are discussed.

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    This work will be submitted to the University of Freiburg. West Germany, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Doctoral degree (rer. nat.). A part of the work was presented at the Spring Meeting of the German Physiological Society, Göttingen. 1978. and was published as an abstract inPflügers Arch,373, R81 (1978).

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