Device for silent substitution excitation of melanopsin for human eye - Strumento ottico per l'eccitazione della melanopsina retinica

Research in neurobiology has identified a new ocular photoreceptor (melanopsin, ipRGC) which mediates a variety of light-based, non-visual effects on human physiology. One means to isolate the stimulation of ipRGCs is silent substitution technique. We have built a Maxwellian view device capable of 85% ipRGCs contrast with large FOV (52°). In this thesis, we use four modulated light sources, illuminate a diffusing sphere, which exit aperture is imaged into the pupil of the eye. A camera with a 950nm illumination capture the pupil. Without luminance changes, we increased ipRGC excitation from low to high level on three subjects. We observed pupil constriction of -14±5% (p < 10^-5).