The factors involved in stimulation by intermittent light

Brightness enhancement in flickering light.

“…The principal similarity between them is that a photochemical reaction forms one link in a complex chemical cycle, and that in each case the cycle, although widely different in most respects, permits an enhancement phenomenon to occur. Data which may be interpreted as evidence of enhancement in photochemical cycles are not limited to photosynthesis and human vision, but they have also been noted for vision of arthropods by Mast, Dolley and others (23,15) and for photographic plates by Davis (14). Unfortunately, no apparent attempt has been made to link the arthropod data with the photochemical cycle, but there seems to be no reason for necessarily considering this effect for arthropods as being caused by the refractory period of the sense cells or of the nervous elements as proposed by Mast (23).…”