Abstract
The visual system works effectively over an enormous range of light intensities. This is made possible by its remarkable ability to adjust its operating level to match the ambient illumination, an ability that is called adaptation. Dark adaptation is the process of adjusting to total darkness or to lower levels of illumination; light adaptation is the reverse. The study of adaptation is important for a variety of practical reasons as well as for an understanding of basic visual function. The most detailed knowledge of adaptational processes has come from psychophysics, but the results have always been pertinent to physiological theory and experimentation.
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Further reading
Barlow HB (1972): Dark and light adaptation: Psychophysics. In: Handbook of Sensory Physiology, VII/4, Jameson D, Hurvich LM, eds. New York: Springer-Verlag
Bartlett NR (1965): Dark adaptation and light adaptation. In: Vision and Visual Perception. Graham CH, ed. New York: Wiley
Rushton WAH (1981): Visual adaptation. In: Adler’s Physiology of the Eye: Clinical Application, 7th ed, Moses, RA, ed. St Louis: Mosby
Wyszecki G, Stiles WS (1982): Color Science, Concepts andMethods, Quantatative Data and Formulas, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley
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Armington, J.C. (1988). Visual Adaptation, Dark, Light. In: Sensory System I. Readings from the Encyclopedia of Neuroscience . Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6647-6_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6647-6_35
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-6649-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6647-6
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