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The human visual cortex response to melanopsin-directed stimulation is accompanied by a distinct perceptual experience

Significance Melanopsin-containing retinal cells detect bright light and contribute to reflex visual responses such as pupil constriction. Their role in conscious, cortical vision is less understood. Using functional MRI to measure brain activity, we find that melanopsin-directed stimulation reaches the visual cortex in people. Such stimulation also produces a distinct perceptual experience. Our results have clinical importance as melanopsin function may contribute to the discomfort that some people experience from bright light. The photopigment melanopsin supports reflexive visual functions in people, such as pupil constriction and circadian photoentrainment. What contribution melanopsin makes to conscious visual perception is less studied. We devised a stimulus that targeted melanopsin separately from the cones using pulsed (3-s) spectral modulations around a photopic background. Pupillometry confirmed that the melanopsin stimulus evokes a response different from that produced by cone stimulation. In each of four subjects, a functional MRI response in area V1 was found. This response scaled with melanopic contrast and was not easily explained by imprecision in the silencing of the cones. Twenty additional subjects then observed melanopsin pulses and provided a structured rating of the perceptual experience. Melanopsin stimulation was described as an unpleasant, blurry, minimal brightening that quickly faded. We conclude that isolated stimulation of melanopsin is likely associated with a response within the cortical visual pathway and with an evoked conscious percept.