Adaptation with a stabilized retinal image: effect of luminance and contrast

The addition of a uniform increment of luminance (L) to a faded retinally-stabilized target results in the subjective reappearance of the image with contrast opposite to that of the target. This phenomenon, called apparent phase reversal (APR), reveals a nonlinear gain mechanism in the adaptation process. The magnitude of the threshold increment to elicit APR (Lapr) is a measure of the state of stabilized adaptation. In the experiments reported here, Lapr was studied as a function of background luminance (Lo) and contrast (m) of the adapting stimulus. It was found that Lapr increases with increasing Lo, but does not depend on m. The data are analyzed within the context of a previously proposed model of stabilized image fading consisting of a multiplicative inverse gain followed by a subtractive process. It was found that the addition of a contrast processing stage was required to account for the relationship between Lapr and m.