1604 Kepler's Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena: First explanation of the optics of the eye. 1610 Galileo publishes the Siderial Messenger. First scientific look at the sky through a telescope. 1611 Kepler's Dioptrice: First explanation of the optics of myopia. Projection theory of stereoscopic vision. 1619 Scheiner's Oculus: First demonstration that accommodation is an active process. First use of fixatives to preserve the eye for anatomical study. First accurate diagrams of the human eye. Discovery ofthe pupillary near reflex. 1621 Snell's law. (Kepler's optical analysis of the eye was based on a small angle, linear approximation to Snell's law.) 1625 Scheiner: First direct observation of the retinal image. 1637 Descartes' La Dioptrique. Corpuscular theory of light. First suggestion of point to point projection of retina onto brain (in his view, onto the walls of the ventricles). 1664 Willis traces the optic tract to the thalamus. 1665 Grimaldi describes diffraction (posthumously). 1666 Newton's prism experiments begin color science. 1675 Roemer measures the speed of light. 1678 Briggs describes fibers in the retina. 1681 Mariotte discovers the blind spot; articulates trichromacy of human color vision. 1682 Newton proposes partial decussation at the optic chiasm. 1684 First microscopic observation of the retina: Leeuwenhoek notices structures now known to be the rods and cones. 1684 Briggs describes night blindness. 1690 Huygens: Longitudinal wave model of light; discovery of polarization . 1700 Ruysch describes ocular circulatory system. 1704 Newton's Optics. 1705 Hooke reports (posthumously) 1/2' limit of visual acuity. 1719 Morgani describes homonymous hemianopia. 1751 Whytt explains neurology of pupillary light reflex. 1755 LeRoy demonstrates electrical phosphenes in blind observers: First hint of a relationship between electricity and vision. 1757 Lomonosov suggests three-'particle' basis of color vision. 1760 Bouguer measures luminance contrast thresholds, prediscovers Weber's Law. 1776 Gennari describes striate area of occipital cortex. 1789 Maskelyne describes night myopia. 1798 Dalton describes color blindness (his own deuteranopia). 1800 Herschel discovers infrared light. 1801 Young discovers astigmation and proves that accommodation is not due to changes in the length of the eye or in the curvature of the cornea. Young proposes three receptor theory of color vision. Ritter discovers ultraviolet light. 1802 Young discovers interference. 1804 Troxler describes loss of color in the periphery of the visual field. 1807 Gall proposes concept of localization of mental functions in the cortex. 1808 French Academy refuses to admit Gall on grounds that the cortex has nothing to do with thinking. 1817 Young proposes transverse wave model of light. Josef Fraunhofer discovers the 'Fraunhofer lines' in the spectrum of sunlight. 1818 Vieth-Muller horopter. 1824 Wollaston explains homonymous hemianopia in terms of partial decussation at the chiasm. Flourens demonstrates loss of vision following cortical lesions (first proof that the cortex is involved in vision). 1825 Purkinje describes optokinetic nystagmus, entopic visualization of retina blood vessels, 'Purkinje shift' in spectral luminosity during dark adaptation, blue arcs of the retina, "Purkinje images (reflections from surfaces of cornea, lens), and motion aftereffects. 1826 Niepce makes the first photograph. J. Muller proposes doctrine of specific energy of nerves, explains optics of compound eyes. 1829 Plateau initiates study of flicker, discovers stroboscopic movement, invents motion pictures (the 'phenakistoscope') 1832 Chevreul describes simultaneous color contrast. Weber measures increment thresholds; Weber's law. 1833 Wheatstone invents the stereoscope. 1834 Plateau-Talbot law. Robert Addams rediscovers the motion aftereffect after looking at the Waterfall of Foyers in Scotland: an illusory motion that notwithstanding the fact that there were at least three earlier reports on this effect, still became known as the Waterfall Illusion. The effect was probably first described by Aristotle in his treatise on dreams. The direction of this illusory motion was first described by Lucretius, a couple of centuries later. In 1825 Johann Evangeliste Purkyne also described the phenomenon after having looked at a cavalry parade. 1838 Fechner discovers subjective color. 1841 Dove shows that stereopsis does not depend on eye movements. 1844 Haidinger's brushes. 1845 Masson shows that Weber's law fails at low luminances. 1847 Donder's law of ocular movements. 1849 Du Bois Reymond discovers the resting potential of the eye. 1851 H. Muller notices visual purple in rods. Helmholtz invents the opthalmoscope. 1853 Grassman formulates laws of trichromacy. 1854 H. Mueller proves that photoreception occurs in the rods and cones. Gratiolet traces visual radiation from thalamus to occipital cortex. Listing's law of ocular movements. 1856 Maxwell tests validity of Grassman's laws; discovers 'Maxwell's spot.' Helmholtz proves that accommodation is effected by a reshaping of the lens. Von Graefe introduces clinical perimentry. Helmholtz' Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik. 1857 Aubert and Forster demonstrate extrafoveal falloff in acuity. Bergmann reports distorted percepts of high frequency gratings attributable to photoreceptor aliasing. 1858 Panum measures areas of stereoscopic fusion. 1860 Fechner's Element der Psychophysik. 1862 Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic radiation. 1864 Donders explains principles of clinical refraction and prescription. 1865 Aubert: First quantitative studies of absolute threshold and dark adaptation. Mach describes 'Mach bands,' suggests lateral inhibition in the retina. First measurements of stereoscopic acuity (Hering, Helmholtz). 1866 Holmgren discovers the electroretinogram. Schultz distinguishes rods and cones; proposes duplicity theory of the retina. 1867 Helmholtz discovers the Bezold-Brucke effect. 1870 Meynert shows that optic radiation terminates in striate area. 1875 Golgi stain. von Gudden establishes partial decussation at the chiasm. Hering proposes opponent process theory of color vision. Exner describes apparent motion. 1876 Boll discovers that 'visual purple' is bleached by light. 1877 Ricco's law. 1878 Kuehne isolates rhodopsin. 1879 Munk formulates concept of topographic projection of retina onto occipital cortex. 1880 Kuehne and Steiner measure gross electrical response of isolated retina. 1881 Rayleigh's anomaloscope. 1885 Bloch's law. 1886 Konig 'Fundamentals.' 1890 Willbrand proposes point to point projection of retina onto striate area. 1892 Ferry-Porter law. 1892 Wulfing measures vernier acuity. 1893 Cajal's La retine des vertebres: first complete description of retinal neuroanatomy as revealed by Golgi stain. Abbe initiates Fourier optics (first informed manipulations of image spectrum). 1894 Konig demonstrates agreement between absorption spectrum of rhodopsin and scotopic spectal sensitivity. 1896 Flechsig describes course of visual radiation from lateral geniculate nucleus to striate area (based on myelogenesis). Stratton experiments with inverted retinal images. 1900 Planck introduces quantum concept. 1903 Piper's law. 1905 Einstein's photon theory. 1910 Minkowski demonstrates point to point projection onto striate area in dogs via behavioral methods. Stigler describes metacontrast. 1911 Gullstrand invents the slit lamp. 1912 Wertheimer's studies of apparent motion. 1913 Abney's law. Minkowski demonstrates separate laminar terminations of left and right optic nerve fibers in lateral geniculate nucleus. 1918 Holmes presents first map of striate cortical projection of the visual field in man. 1920 First anatomical demonstration of point to point projection of retina onto lateral geniculate nucleus (Minkowski, Brouwer and Zeeman). 1922 First application of Fourier analysis to flicker sensitivity (Ives). 1924 First C. I. E. photopic luminosity function. 1925 Holm demonstrates that vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness. 1927 First recording of electrical activity in optic nerve (Adrian and Matthews) 1929 Berger discovers alpha component of the EEG. 1929 First electrical stimulation of human visual cortex tFoerster and Penfield). 1931 C. I. E. standardizes calorimetry (Guild-Wright primaries). First measurement of rhodopsin regeneration in vivo (Tansley) 1932 First recording of electrical activity in single optic nerve fibers (in limulus; Hartline and Graham). 1933 Stiles and Crawford demonstrate directional sensitivity of cones. Wald finds vitamin A in rhodopsin. First electronically amplified human ERG (Cooper, Creed, and Granit) 1935 Osterberg: First cell count of rods and cones in human retina. LeGrand measures visual acuity bypassing the optics of the eye. 1939 Stiles introduces Pi mechanism analysis of increment thresholds. 1941 First mapping of the cortical projection of the retina based on electrical responses (Talbot and Marshall). 1942 Hecht, Schlarr, and Pirenne show that rods respond to single quanta. 1943 DeVries-Rose law. 1947 Granit distinguishes sustained and transient ganglion cells. 1948 Gabor describes principles of holography. Rose introduces the concept of detection quantum efficiency 1949 Transient VEP first reported by C. C. Evans 1951 C. I. E. standardizes scotopic luminosity function. 1952 First electrical recording from individual mammalian retinal ganglion cells: Discovery of antagonistic center-surround organization of receptive fields (Kuffler). First demonstration of disappearance of stabilized retinal images (Ditchburn and Ginsborg; Riggs, Ratcliff, Cornsweet and Cornsweet). 1953 First recording from horizontal cells (Svaetichin's S potential). 1954 First psychophysical demonstration of rod saturation (Aguilar and Stiles). Peterson, Birdsall and Fox present the theory of signal detectability. Tanner and Swets apply the theory of signal detectability to human sensation. 1955 Photoreversal (Hagins, Hubbard, and Kropf). Jameson and Hurvich use hue cancellation to infer opponent color codes. First study of rhodopsin regeneration in living human retina by ophthalmic densitometry by Rushton, Campbell, Hagins, and Brindley. Rushton demonstrates light induced changes in human cone pigments; identifies chlorolabe and erythrolabe. Flament makes the first measurement of the line-spread function of the human eye. Kanizsa describes subjective contours. 1956 First measurement of human spatial modulation transfer function by Schade. Barlow demonstrates the existence of dark light at absolute threshold. 1957 Reichardt presents an autocorrelation model for motion detection. 1959 Land's color demonstrations. First electrical recording from individual visual cortical neurons; discovery of simple, complex, hypercomplex receptive fields by Hubel and Weisel. Lettvin, Maturana, McCullogh and Pitt examine feature detectors in the frog visual system. 1960 Publication of first random dot stereogram by Julesz. Sperling uses partial report to measure iconic memory.
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