Is accommodation colorblind? Focusing chromatic contours.

Two adjacent regions define an edge if they differ in either color or luminance. If the difference is purely chromatic, the edge is said to be isoluminant. Isoluminant contours are often perceptually unstable. Perhaps some of this instability could be explained if isoluminant contours were difficult to bring into focus. To test this hypothesis, a vernier optometer was used to measure the accuracy of steady-state accommodation for the vertical boundary of a red-green bipartite field. This edge was presented at optical distances of 0, 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 diopters, with brightness contrasts between the two hemifields of 0% (isoluminant), 15%, 58%, and 100%. Accommodation was essentially unresponsiveness to the isoluminant edge and exhibited increasing focusing accuracy with increased brightness contrast. Control experiments replicated this finding for red-orange, green-blue, and white-white fields. These results imply that luminance contrast is a necessary stimulus for monocular accommodation. Inappropriate accommodation may be a factor contributing to the perceptual instability of isoluminant patterns.