Hue, Saturation, and Brightness: Cortical Emergence and Modeling of Color Percepts

什么神经过程让人类感知和体验不同的颜色？人类色彩视觉的运作一直是人类视觉感知科学研究中被广泛研究的课题之一，但其神经基础仍是一个谜。该项目旨在研究一种新的理论，该理论可以帮助解释不同颜色的感知是如何从神经活动中产生的。了解颜色感知的机制对于设计成功的人工视觉系统和视觉显示，以及理解视觉问题的基础是非常重要的。虽然人们对色彩视觉的许多方面都很了解，但试图找到色彩感知的各种组成部分的特定神经元水平的相关性却失败了。具体来说，心理物理学研究表明，对颜色的感知有三个方面：1)色调，2)颜色纯度（“饱和”颜色和柔和颜色之间的差异），以及3)亮度。研究人员长期以来一直认为，这些特性是相对早期的神经处理的结果，在神经元的层面上，它们专门对视觉刺激的这些特性做出反应。然而，现有的研究未能找到一致的证据，证明特定的神经元专门对颜色感知的这些特性做出反应。在这个项目中，将研究一种新的理论，它可以帮助解释颜色感知的三种特性是如何从神经活动中产生的。这个项目正在研究的新理论是，色彩感知的特性（色调、纯度和亮度）来自神经元网络之间复杂的相互作用，在某些情况下涉及竞争，在其他情况下涉及合作。通过这种方式，三种颜色感知特性是复杂神经活动的涌现特性，而不是在专门的神经元水平上表现出来的。在该项目中，研究者将对提出的复杂神经相互作用进行复杂的计算建模，以努力解释文献中现有的数据模式。

What neural processes allow humans to perceive and experience different colors? The operation of human color vision has been among the most extensively investigated topics in the scientific study of human visual perception, yet its neural basis remains elusive. This project aims to investigate a new theory that could help to explain how the perception of different colors emerges from neural activity. Understanding the mechanisms of color perception is important to designing successful artificial vision systems and visual displays, as well as to understanding the basis of visual problems.Though many aspects of color vision are well-understood, attempts to find specific neuronal-level correlates of the various components of a color percept have failed. Specifically, psychophysics research has shown that there are three aspects to the perception of a color: 1) hue, 2) color purity (the difference between a "saturated" color and a pastel one), and 3) brightness, and researchers have long assumed that these properties result from relatively early-stage neural processing, at the level of neurons that specialize in reacting to these properties of a visual stimulus. However, existing research has failed to find consistent evidence that specific neurons specialize in reacting to these properties of a color percept. In this project, a new theory will be investigated that could help to explain how the three properties of color percepts emerge from neural activity. The new theory under investigation in this project is that the properties of color perception (hue, purity, and brightness) emerge from complex interactions among networks of neurons, involving competition in some cases and cooperation in others. In this way, the three color percept properties are emergent properties of complex neural activity, rather than being represented at the level of specialized neurons. In the project, the investigator will carry out sophisticated computational modeling of the proposed complex neural interactions in an effort to explain existing data patterns in the literature.