Effect of Diffuse Luminance Flicker on Retinal Macular Blood Flow: An Investigation Using the Blue Field Simulation Technique

Abstract

The motivation for this work has been the observation by the majority of subjects who were asked to observe the motion of their own leukocytes (WBCs) in retinal macular capillaries by means of the blue field entoptic phenomenon that these WBCs move more swiftly or in greater number for a few seconds after the diffuse blue light illumination had been flickered for a short period of time. This finding is important because it suggests a possible coupling between local retinal activity induced by flicker and local blood flow. Consequently, we have attempted to quantitate this effect using the blue field simulation technique (BFST). In this paper, we report on the following aspects: (i) the effect of the duration of the diffuse luminance flicker on the motion of the WBCs; (ii) the motion of WBCs after cessation of the flicker stimulus; and (iii) the effect of the frequency of the flicker stimulus on the WBCs motion.