Positive colored afterimages from the figure-ground configurations of colored lights: effects of chromaticity, luminance and a spatial parameter of the adapting stimuli.

Colored afterimages were obtained after the eye was exposed to the adapting field consisting of the figure-ground configuration of colored lights with the same hue and different saturation. When a colored patch was surrounded by a more saturated field, the color of the afterimage was similar to that of the previous patch (positive afterimage). By measuring the threshold chromaticity difference between the patch and the surround for the production of the positive afterimage, the effects of the chromaticity, luminance and a spatial parameter of the adapting field were determined. The obtained threshold chromaticity differences increased with an increase in the saturation of the adapting field, and with a decrease in the surround luminance. When the adapting field consisted of an equiluminous saturation-modulated rectangular grating, the threshold chromaticity difference curves showed similar properties as those of the contrast thresholds for equiluminous chromaticity-modulated gratings. The results suggest the existence of a set of mechanisms at higher-order level in the visual system, tuning the difference in hue and/or saturation across contours.