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. 1938 Jan 20;21(3):269–287. doi: 10.1085/jgp.21.3.269

AREA AND VISUAL THRESHOLD

George Wald 1
PMCID: PMC2141943  PMID: 19873050

Abstract

1. The variation of threshold with field area was measured in fields homogeneous in rod-cone composition. At 15° above the fovea, an increase in field diameter from 1° to 5° reduces the threshold sevenfold, at 25° above the fovea tenfold. 2. These changes are shown to follow qualitatively from simple statistical properties of the retinal mosaic. Analytic treatment leads to the expression, (A – nt)k I = C, in which A = area, nt = constant threshold number of elements, I = threshold intensity, and k and C are constants. This equation describes the available data accurately, and is the general form of previous empirical area-threshold formulae.

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Selected References

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  1. Adrian E. D., Matthews R. The action of light on the eye: Part III. The interaction of retinal neurones. J Physiol. 1928 Jun 24;65(3):273–298. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1928.sp002475. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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