[The discrimination by the rabbit of light intensities and the plotting of its achromatic space].

Elaboration of differential instrumental conditioned reflexes in rabbits showed that probabilities of responses to differential stimuli were inversely related to differences in intensity between conditioned and differential stimuli. Factor analysis of a response probability matrix revealed two orthogonal axes. They could be interpreted as the axes of brightness and darkness in achromatic space of a rabbit. Lights of different intensities were located on a semicircle in accordance with their intensities. The experiments imply that light intensities are coded by excitation vectors composed of responses of brightness and darkness neurons.