Color perception under chromatic adaptation: red/green equilibria with adapted short-wavelength-sensitive cones

Chromatic adaptation can dramatically alter the color appearance of a light. The specific effect of adapting short-wavelength-sensitive (SWS) cones is examined by using two adapting wavelengths that lie on a tritanopic confusion line. The change in color appearance caused by signals from adapted SWS cones is isolated by restricting the wavelengths of the test light to 550 nm or longer. Thus the test negligibly stimulates SWS cones, so their sensitivity does not affect the test's appearance. The results show that adapted SWS cones contribute redness to the appearance of a superimposed test light, while not affecting sensitivity of MWS and LWS cones. Quantitatively, the redness from SWS cones illuminated by a large adapting field approaches physical admixture of test and adapting lights. This is very different from an adapting field that stimulates only MWS and LWS cones which, due to a postreceptoral process, contributes much less redness to a small superimposed test than expected from admixture. The difference between the adapted SWS-cone and the adapted MWS/LWS-cone contributions to the color of a small test explains a surprising result: a bluish-green (491 nm) adapting field contributes redness to a superimposed test light.