POWRE: Gender-Based Considerations for Modeling Cognition and Color Appearance

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Investigators studying the neural basis of cognition search for robust and meaningful relations between important neural stages and mental states defining complex psychological sensations. This approach has characterized the study of human color vision. The early stages of neural processing involved in the perception of color from environmental light have been mapped from retinal input structures to neural processing structures in the brain. This earlier research has adopted the Trichromatic model of color vision, which assumes three different retinal light detectors, each of which codes a different part of the visual spectrum and uses a different neural processing channel. This model has been widely used for modeling both early visual processing and higher-order color sensations. However, recent studies in the molecular genetics of color vision have demonstrated that a large number of individuals in the general female population can express more than the standard three retinal visual photopigments. Thus, it is possible that the trichromatic assumption of a strictly three-channel color vision system may not be appropriate for those individuals. These individuals may have retinas composed of more than three types of cone photoreceptor visual pigments and may experience color sensations which differ from those experienced by individuals expressing only three "normal" pigments. This research will assess the color perception of individuals grouped according to classes of color-vision genes as identified through genetic assays. Individuals identified as Dichromats (two color-vision channels) and Trichromats (the usual three color-vision channels), as well as individuals genetically determined to have non-standard photopigment genetic variations will be examined. In these experiments, individuals' color perception capabilities will be assessed using two methods, a standard method long used and found in the literature and another newly developed method. Additionally, the research will conduct a parallel line of investigations exploring the perceptual consequences of various mutations in an important color-vision gene. This research will clarify the extent to which gender differences in color appearance behaviors are mediated by variations in color-vision gene expression. The results will also provide evidence about the adequacy of the three-channel processing assumption and the Trichromatic model of color perception. In addition, these experiments will help us understand a number of technical issues related to the influence of genetic mechanisms on color vision. This research, because of its implications for people who may have more than three photopigment classes, may impact a variety of industrial applications for coding color appearances (e.g., three-phosphor primaries used in color television technologies, environmental lighting applications, and many others.) which rely on the Trichromatic model. This POWRE grant, in addition to the specific research involved, should advance the PI's prominence as a research scientist, mentor and scholar in this area of research.