Human scotopic spatiotemporal sensitivity: a comparison of psychophysical and electrophysiological data

The aim of the study was to investigate spatiotemporal visual functions under scotopic and photopic conditions in order to acquire human psychophysical and electrophysiological data that are comparable with contrast sensitivities based on single-unit recordings in animal experiments. Static and dynamic contrast sensitivities (CSs) and steady-state visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were measured under photopic and scotopic conditions in healthy volunteers. The results from the CS experiment indicated that the inclusion of temporal modulation and the application of scotopic luminance levels uniformly resulted in a relatively increased sensitivity for low spatial frequencies. Similarly, analysis of the second harmonic component of the VEPs demonstrated a shift from band-pass to low-pass functions. These results suggest that, under scotopic conditions, human visuospatial processing is characteristically predominated by the functional activity of the magnocellular pathways.