Cite as:
Wolf R, Rosenzweig R, Schuchardt M, 2002, "Looking at one's own cone cells: entoptic structures visualised through a moving pinhole or a microscope with excentrically rotating aperture stop" Perception 31 ECVP Abstract Supplement

Looking at one's own cone cells: entoptic structures visualised through a moving pinhole or a microscope with excentrically rotating aperture stop

R Wolf, R Rosenzweig, M Schuchardt

When looking at a bright white surface through a 0.5 mm pinhole quickly moved close to one's eye on a circular path, the shadows of 'mouches volantes' are flitting too fast across the retina to be detected. Instead, shadows of those structures are perceived which are close above the photosensitive layer: capillaries surrounding the foveola, and between them 'leather-like structures' [v. Campenhausen, 1993 Die Sinne des Menschen (Stuttgart: Thieme) p. 110] consisting of tiny bright dots. We determined their spatial frequency psychophysically by comparing it with that of a small flock of painted dots. When viewed through the excentrically rotated pinhole, both spatial frequencies are perceived simultaneously and they appear equal from a well-defined distance. Thus, on the retina the dots must be about 15 µm apart, which coincides with the size of cone cells. We hypothesise that the dot pattern represents the 'shadows' of the cone cells' nuclei, each of which operates as a tiny ball lens, owing to its higher refractive index. When looking through a microscope with an excentrically rotating aperture stop, this dot pattern is seen all over the bright field, since the image-forming cone of rays steadily hits the retina from different directions. In ophthalmology, this pattern may serve to diagnose the beginning of a degeneration of one's own macula.

[Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.]

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