The machinery of colour vision.
Some fundamental principles of colour vision, deduced from perceptual studies, have been understood for a long time. Physiological studies have confirmed the existence of three classes of cone photoreceptors, and of colour-opponent neurons that compare the signals from cones, but modern work has drawn attention to unexpected complexities of early organization: the proportions of cones of different types vary widely among individuals, without great effect on colour vision; the arrangement of different types of cones in the mosaic seems to be random, making it hard to optimize the connections to colour-opponent mechanisms; and new forms of colour-opponent mechanisms have recently been discovered. At a higher level, in the primary visual cortex, recent studies have revealed a simpler organization than had earlier been supposed, and in some respects have made it easier to reconcile physiological and perceptual findings.
Solomon
Samuel G
SG
Disciplines of Physiology, Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences and Bosch Institute, Anderson-Stuart Building F13, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Lennie
Peter
P
D000818:Animals; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology