Temporal impulse and step responses of the human eye obtained psychophysically by means of a drift-correcting perturbation technique

Internal impulse and step responses are derived from the thresholds of short probe flashes by means of a drift-correcting perturbation technique. The approach is based on only two postulated systems properties: quasi-linearity and peak detection. A special feature of the technique is its strong reduction of the concealing effect of sensitivity drift within and between sessions. Results were found to be repeatable, even after about one year. For a 1° foveal disk at 1200 td stationary level, impulse responses of increments and decrements were found to be mirror-symmetrical. They were equal to the derivatives of the measured step responses. As a consequence the threshold of any fast-changing retinal illumination should be predictable. This will be tested in a subsequent paper. The transfer function of the system responding to a 1° stimulus shows a band-pass filter type of processing for transients, confirming quantitatively earlier findings. In contrast, a foveal point source on an extended background of 1200 td, to which impulse and step responses appear also to be linearly related, gives rise to low-pass filter action of the system.