Central mechanisms of color vision

视觉系统已经成为理解的首要模型 由神经元进行的信息处理。在视觉上，颜色的亚情态 提供了一个特别有吸引力的实验平台：我们知道一个巨大的 关于颜色感知的现象学的数量，并可以解释一些 在数量和高精度的颜色感知方面，由Well- 了解生理过程。由于这一进展，我们可以迅速 并准确诊断许多不同形式的色盲，并可以建立 准确呈现颜色的设备。另一方面，我们对 色觉的神经生理学在很大程度上局限于视网膜。中环 颜色视觉的机制在很大程度上是未知的，颜色的许多方面 感觉不能用视网膜机制来解释。拟议的研究 是衡量信号的质量和行为相关性，超越 调节色觉的视网膜。计划了两个具体的目标：1)单个神经元 在初级视觉皮质进行记录，以识别最有可能 这是色觉的基础。2)初级视皮层中的单个神经元记录 研究影响颜色外观的操作是如何影响神经元反应的。 拟议的实验将我们对颜色视觉的知识扩展到 对神经科学原理的理解，这些原理产生了感知和 它的紊乱。这样的理解有望提供促进 视觉功能在创伤或神经疾病后的恢复。

The visual system has emerged as a premier model for understanding information processing by neurons. Within vision, the submodality of color provides a particularly attractive experimental platform: we know a tremendous amount about the phenomenology of color perception and can explain some aspects of color perception, quantitatively and with high precision, by well- understood physiological processes. As a result of this progress, we can quickly and accurately diagnose many distinct forms of color blindness and can build devices that render colors accurately. On the other hand, our understanding of the neurophysiology of color vision is largely restricted to the retina. The central mechanisms of color vision are largely unknown, and many aspects of color perception cannot be explained by retinal mechanisms. The proposed research is to measure the quality and behavioral relevance of the signals beyond the retina that mediate color vision. Two specific aims are planned: 1) Single neuron recording in the primary visual cortex to identify the neurons most likely to underlie color vision. 2) Single neuron recording in the primary visual cortex to study how manipulations that affect color appearance affect neuronal responses. The proposed experiments extend our knowledge of color vision toward an understanding of the principles of neuroscience that give rise to perception and its disorders. Such an understanding promises to provide the means to promote recovery of visual function following trauma or neurological disease.