Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Enabling High Grayscale Resolution Displays and Accurate Response Time Measurements on Conventional Computers
Published on: February 29, 2012
Luminace, not brightness, determines temporal brightness enhancement with chromatic stimuli
Abstract:
Brightness-duration relations for chromatic stimuli were studied using three pulse-to-background luminace relations: chromatic equal-luminance pulses (3.2 cd/m2) were presented as increments of 0.3 or 1.0 log units above a lower luminance achromatic background, or were presented in hue substitution, equated in luminance to the achromatic background, so that no spatio-temporal luminance transients occurred during stimulus presentation. Incremental pulses produced temporal brightness enhancement (the Broca-Sulzer phenomenon), but hue substitution pulses did not. Temporal brightness enhancement thus depends upon the occurrence of luminance transients and cannot be produced by pulsed-to-background brightness differences associated solely with chromaticity differences.
Related Concept Videos
Difference from Background: Limit of Detection
The LOD indicates the presence or absence...
Photoluminescence: Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
A pair of electrons in a...
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...

