The nature of the pi1 colour mechanism of W.S. Stiles

Abstract

The ppi1 colour mechanism was isolated by means of Stile's auxiliary field technique: that it is pi1 which is isolated is proven by both test and field action spectra. 2. The fundamental mechanisms of human trichromatic colour vision must satisfy Grassman's law of additivity. The hypothesis that pi1 is one of the three fundamentals is tested by experiments in which pairs (u1, u2) of monochromatic adapting fields are mixed 3. When two fields with wave-lengths in the neighbourhood of its primary mode (mu1, mu2 less than or equal to 500 nm) are combined, pi1 is field-additive, consistent with the hypothesis that this portion of the pi1 action spectrum is that of the short-wave-length-sensitive photoreceptors. 4. When a short-wave-length adaptation field (mu1 less than or equal to 500 nm) is mixed with a longer wave-length field (mu2 greater than or equal 550 nm) i1 is strongly non-additive. This result proves that the long-wave-length portion of the pi1 field spectrum is generated at least in part by a signal originating in the long- or middle-wave-length sensitive cones. 5. Analysis of the additivity failures supports a model of pi1 in which the signal to be detected is generated in the short-wave-length cones, and must pass serially through two gain stages: the gain in the first stage is controlled by the short-wave-length cones alone; the gain in the second stage is controlled by a signal originating in the middle, or long-wave-length cones, or both.