The International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) Standard for full-field electroretinography (ERG) describes a minimum procedure, but encourages more extensive testing. This ISCEV extended protocol describes an extension to the ERG Standard, namely the photopic negative response (PhNR) of the light-adapted flash ERG, as a well-established technique that is broadly accepted by experts in the field. The PhNR is a slow negative-going wave after the b-wave that provides information about the function of retinal ganglion cells and their axons. The PhNR can be reduced in disorders that affect the innermost retina, including glaucoma and other forms of optic neuropathy. This document, based on existing literature, provides a protocol for recording and analyzing the PhNR in response to a brief flash. The protocol includes full-field stimulation, a frequency bandwidth of the recording in which the lower limit does not exceed 0.3 Hz, and a spectrally narrowband stimulus, specifically, a red flash on a rod saturating blue background. Suggested flash strengths cover a range up to and including the minimum required to elicit a maximum amplitude PhNR. This extended protocol for recording the PhNR provides a simple test of generalized retinal ganglion cell function that could be added to standard ERG testing.

Estimates of the relative numbers of long-wavelength-sensitive (L) and middle-wavelength-sensitive (M) cones vary considerably among normal trichromats and depend significantly on the nature of the experimental method employed. Here we estimate L/M cone ratios in a population of normal observers, using three psychophysical tasks—detection thresholds for cone-isolating stimuli at different temporal frequencies, heterochromatic flicker photometry, and cone contrast ratios at minimal flicker perception—as well as flicker electroretinography and retinal densitometry. The psychophysical tasks involving high temporal frequencies, specifically designed to tap into the luminance channel, provide average L/M cone ratios that significantly differ from unity with large interindividual variation. In contrast, the psychophysical tasks involving low temporal frequencies, chosen to tap into the red–green chromatic channel, provide L/M cone ratios that are always close to unity. L/M cone ratios determined from electroretinographic recordings or from retinal densitometry correlate with those determined from the high-temporal-frequency tasks. These findings suggest that the sensitivity of the luminance channel is directly related to the relative densities of the L and the M cones and that the red–green chromatic channel introduces a gain adjustment to compensate for differences in L and M cone signal strength.

The temporal response of cone inputs to macaque retinal ganglion cells were compared with cone-specific sinusoidal modulation used to isolate each cone type. For all cell types of the parvocellular (PC) pathway, temporal responsivity was similar for short (S)-, middle (M)-, and long (L)-wavelength-sensitive cone inputs, apart from small latency differences between inputs to center and surround. The temporal response resembled that expected from receptor physiology. Responses of cells of the magnocellular pathway to M- or L-cone modulation showed more complex properties indicative of postreceptoral processing. Human psychophysical temporal-sensitivity functions were acquired with S-cone modulation under conditions similar to those for the physiological measurements. Ratios of psychophysical to physiological data from S-cone cells (the only cells that respond to this stimulus) yielded an estimate of the central filter acting upon PC-pathway signals. The filter characteristic could be described by a four-stage low-pass filter with corner frequency 3–5 Hz.