[The effect of the pupil as aperture and field stop on the various components of the human electroretinogram (author's transl)].

The electroretinogram (ERG) was recorded in 10 normal subjects under scotopic and photopic conditions with the pupil of one eye constricted and that of the other eye dilated. The human iris, being displaced from the nodal point of the eye, acts not only as an aperture, regulating the retinal illumination, but also as a field stop, limiting the visual angle, especially for large object fields, as in Ganzfeld illumination. This double effect of a constricted pupil clearly influences the Ganzfeld ERG, not only shifting the intensity response functions to higher luminances but also diminishing the maximal responses. Control experiments with smaller test fields, which are less affected by the pupillary field-stop properties, reveal no diminution of the scotopic b-wave amplitudes. Implicit time functions, being nearly independent of the number of receptors stimulated, can be matched by taking into account the pupillary diameter and calculating the actual retinal illumination (Troland). Amplitudes, being highly affected by a decrease of responding neurons due to the angle-limiting field-stop character of the pupil, cannot be matched with regard to the pupillary diameter. This effect is most noticeable in Ganzfeld illumination for the scotopic b-wave, generated mainly by neurons of the peripheral retina, and has less effect on the photopic responses that are generated more centrally.