Chromatic discrimination: differential contributions from two adapting fields.

To test whether a retinal or cortical mechanism sums contributions from two adapting fields to chromatic discrimination, L/M discrimination was measured with a test annulus surrounded by an inner circular field and an outer rectangular field. A retinal summation mechanism predicted that the discrimination pattern would not change with a change in the fixation location. Therefore, the fixation was set either in the inner or the outer field in two experiments. When one of the adapting fields was "red" and the other was "green," the adapting field where the observer fixated always had a stronger influence on chromatic discrimination. However, when one adapting field was "white" and the other was red or green, the white field always weighted more heavily than the other adapting field in determining discrimination thresholds, whether the white field or the fixation was in the inner or outer adapting field. These results suggest that a cortical mechanism determines the relative contributions from different adapting fields.