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

研究认知的神经基础的研究人员寻找重要的神经阶段和定义复杂心理感觉的精神状态之间强大而有意义的关系。这种方法是人类色觉研究的特点。从环境光中感知颜色的神经处理的早期阶段已经从视网膜输入结构映射到大脑中的神经处理结构。这项早期的研究采用了色觉的三色模型，该模型假设了三个不同的视网膜光探测器，每个探测器编码视觉光谱的不同部分，并使用不同的神经处理通道。该模型已被广泛用于早期视觉加工和高阶颜色感觉的建模。然而，最近对色觉分子遗传学的研究表明，在普通女性群体中，大量个体可以表达超过标准的三种视网膜视感光色素。因此，严格的三通道色觉系统的三色假设可能不适用于这些个体。这些人的视网膜可能由三种以上的视锥感光细胞视觉色素组成，并可能体验到与只表达三种“正常”色素的人不同的颜色感觉。这项研究将评估根据基因分析确定的色觉基因类别分组的个体的颜色感知能力。被确认为二色(两个色觉通道)和三色(通常的三个色觉通道)的个体，以及被遗传确定具有非标准感光基因变异的个体将被检查。在这些实验中，将使用两种方法来评估个体的颜色感知能力，一种是文献中长期使用和发现的标准方法，另一种是新开发的方法。此外，这项研究还将进行一系列平行的调查，探索一种重要的色觉基因的各种突变的知觉后果。这项研究将阐明色觉基因表达的差异在多大程度上调节了色貌行为的性别差异。这些结果也将为三通道加工假设和颜色知觉的三原色模型的充分性提供证据。此外，这些实验将帮助我们了解与遗传机制对颜色视觉的影响有关的一些技术问题。这项研究由于其对可能具有三个以上感光级别的人的影响，可能会影响用于编码颜色外观的各种工业应用(例如，在彩色电视技术、环境照明应用等中使用的三基色荧光粉)。它们依赖于三原色模型。这笔POWRE补助金，除了涉及的具体研究外，应该会促进国际和平协会作为这一研究领域的研究科学家、导师和学者的显赫地位。

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.