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An afterimage is a non-specific term that refers to an image continuing to appear in one's vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased. An afterimage may be a normal phenomenon (physiological afterimage) or may be pathological (palinopsia). Illusory palinopsia may be a pathological exaggeration of physiological afterimages. The remainder of this article refers to physiological afterimages. A common physiological afterimage is the dim area that seems to float before one's eyes after briefly looking into a light source, such as a camera flash. ==Negative afterimages== Negative afterimages are caused when the eye's photoreceptors, primarily known as rods and cones, adapt to overstimulation and lose sensitivity. Newer evidence suggests there is cortical contribution as well. Normally, the overstimulating image is moved to a fresh area of the retina with small eye movements known as microsaccades. However, if the image is large or the eye remains too steady, these small movements are not enough to keep the image constantly moving to fresh parts of the retina. The photoreceptors that are constantly exposed to the same stimulus will eventually exhaust their supply of photopigment, resulting in a decrease in signal to the brain. This phenomenon can be seen when moving from a bright environment to a dim one, like walking indoors on a bright snowy day. These effects are accompanied by neural adaptations in the occipital lobe of the brain that function similar to color balance adjustments in photography. These adaptations attempt to keep vision consistent in dynamic lighting. Viewing a uniform background while these adaptations are still occurring will allow an individual to see the after image because localized areas of vision are still being processed by the brain using adaptations that are no longer needed. "When all wavelengths stimulate the retinal region adapted to green light, the M and L cones contribute less to the resulting percept because their photopigments absorb less light than the S cones. Thus, trichromatic theory can not explain all afterimage phenomena, indicating the need for an opponent-process theory such as that articulated by Ewald Hering (1878) and further developed by Hurvich and Jameson (1957). Afterimages are the complementary hue of the adapting stimulus and trichromatic theory fails to account for this fact." (David T. Horner, Demonstrations of Color Perception and the Importance of Contours, Handbook for Teaching Introductory Psychology, Volume 2, page 217. Psychology Press, Texas, 2000) Ewald Hering explained how the brain sees afterimages, in terms of three pairs of primary colors. This opponent process theory states that the human visual system interprets color information by processing signals from cones and rods in an antagonistic manner. The opponent color theory suggests that there are three opponent channels: red versus green, blue versus yellow, and black versus white. Responses to one color of an opponent channel are antagonistic to those to the other color. Therefore, a green image will produce a magenta afterimage. The green color fatigues the green photoreceptors, so they produce a weaker signal. Anything resulting in less green, is interpreted as its paired primary color, which is magenta. 240px Example movie which produces distortion illusion after one watches it and looks away. See Motion aftereffect. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「afterimage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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