Luminous and chromatic flickering patterns have opposite effects.

When stimulated in phase by a sinusoidally flickering, uniform field, the red and green cone systems tend to inhibit each other. This inhibition is minimized by (i) counterphase (luminance) patterns or (ii) red/green (chromaticity) flicker. However, when (i) and (ii) are combined, the usual flickering-pattern effect is reversed: instead of enhancing chromatic flicker, counterphase patterns tend to suppress it.