Advantage of dichromats over trichromats in discrimination of color-camouflaged stimuli in humans.
This study investigated whether 12 participants with color-vision deficiency had superior visual discrimination of color-camouflaged stimuli shown on a computer screen compared with 12 participants with normal trichromatic vision. Participants were asked to distinguish a circular pattern from other patterns in which textural elements differed from the background in orientation and thickness. In one condition, stimuli were single-colored, green or red; in the other condition, stimuli were color camouflaged with a green and red mosaic overlaid onto the pattern. Color-vision deficient participants selected the correct stimuli in the color-camouflaged condition as quickly as they did in the single-colored condition. However, normal color-vision participants took longer to select the correct choice in the color-camouflaged condition than in the single-colored condition. These results suggest that participants with color-vision deficiency may have a superior visual ability to discriminate the color-camouflaged stimuli.
Saito
Atsuko
A
Department of Animal Models for Human Disease, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan. atsuko@ncnp.go.jp
Mikami
Akichika
A
Hosokawa
Takayuki
T
Hasegawa
Toshikazu
T