Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Physiology logoLink to The Journal of Physiology
. 1983 Feb;335:683–697. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1983.sp014558

Perception of colour in unilateral tritanopia.

M Alpern, K Kitahara, D H Krantz
PMCID: PMC1197377  PMID: 6603509

Abstract

The unilateral tritanope described in the previous paper (Alpern, Kitahara & Krantz, 1983) was able to match every narrow-band light presented to his tritanopic eye with lights from a tristimulus colorimeter viewed in the adjacent field by the normal eye. In two regions of the spectrum (called isochromes) physically identical lights appeared identical to the observer's two eyes. One isochrome was close to 'blue' for the normal eye, the other was in the long-wave spectral region seen by the normal eye predominantly as 'red'. Between these isochromes the normal eye required less than spectral purity to match, dropping to near zero purity at 560-570 nm. A mixture of the two isochromes that appeared purple to the normal eye appeared neutral to the tritanopic eye. Hence dichoptic matches grossly violate Grassmann's additivity law. For the normal eye colour naming conformed to typical normal results. For the tritanopic eye the results were coherent with those found by dichoptic matching: the spectrum was divided into two regions by the achromatic neutral band. To the short-wave side, only the colour names 'blue' and 'white' were ever used. To the long-wave side the predominant colour names were 'red' and 'white' with some 'yellow'. Spectral lights appeared neither 'red-blue' nor greenish. Surrounding the test with an annulus either 430 nm, 650 nm, or a mixture of these, fails to induce any greenish appearance, although the achromatic band shifted in the expected directions. It is concluded that there must be exactly three functionally independent, essentially non-linear central codes for colour perception, and that these codes are different from those suggested in existing theories of colour perception.

Full text

PDF
683

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alpern M., Kitahara K., Krantz D. H. Classical tritanopia. J Physiol. 1983 Feb;335:655–681. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1983.sp014557. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BOYNTON R. M., SCHAFER W., NEUN M. E. HUE-WAVELENGTH RELATION MEASURED BY COLOR-NAMING METHOD FOR THREE RETINAL LOCATIONS. Science. 1964 Oct 30;146(3644):666–668. doi: 10.1126/science.146.3644.666. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Birch-Cox J. A case of acquired tritanopia. Mod Probl Ophthalmol. 1976;17:325–330. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gordon J., Abramov I. Color vision in the peripheral retina. II. Hue and saturation. J Opt Soc Am. 1977 Feb;67(2):202–207. doi: 10.1364/josa.67.000202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Graham C. H., Hsia Y. Visual discriminations of a subject with acquired unilateral tritanopia. Vision Res. 1967 May;7(5):469–479. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(67)90054-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. HURVICH L. M., JAMESON D. Some quantitative aspects of an opponent-colors theory. II. Brightness, saturation, and hue in normal and dichromatic vision. J Opt Soc Am. 1955 Aug;45(8):602–616. doi: 10.1364/josa.45.000602. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Ingling C. R., Jr, Scheibner H. M., Boynton R. M. Color naming of small foveal fields. Vision Res. 1970 Jun;10(6):501–511. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(70)90006-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. JAMESON D., HURVICH L. M. Perceived color and its dependence on focal, surrounding, and preceding stimulus variables. J Opt Soc Am. 1959 Sep;49:890–898. doi: 10.1364/josa.49.000890. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Krauskopf J., Srebro R. Spectral sensitivity of color mechanisms: derivation from fluctuations of color appearance near threshold. Science. 1965 Dec 10;150(3702):1477–1479. doi: 10.1126/science.150.3702.1477. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Larimer J. Opponent-process additivity--I: red-green equilibria. Vision Res. 1974 Nov;14(11):1127–1140. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(74)90209-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. MacLeod D. I., Lennie P. Red-green blindness confined to one eye. Vision Res. 1976;16(7):691–702. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(76)90179-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mollon J. D., Polden P. G. An anomaly in the response of the eye to light of short wavelengths. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1977 Mar 29;278(960):207–240. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1977.0038. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ohba N., Tanino T. Unilateral colour vision defect resembling tritanopia. Mod Probl Ophthalmol. 1976;17:331–335. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pearlman A. L., Birch J., Meadows J. C. Cerebral color blindness: an acquired defect in hue discrimination. Ann Neurol. 1979 Mar;5(3):253–261. doi: 10.1002/ana.410050307. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Smith D. P. Color naming and hue discrimination in congenital tritanopia and tritanomaly. Vision Res. 1973 Feb;13(2):209–218. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. VERRIEST G. Further studies on acquired deficiency of color discrimination. J Opt Soc Am. 1963 Jan;53:185–195. doi: 10.1364/josa.53.000185. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. WALLS G. L., MATHEWS R. W. New means of studying color blindness and normal foveal color vision, with some results and their genetical implications. Publ Psychol. 1952 Apr 29;7(1):1–172. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. WILLMER E. N. Further observations on the properties of the central fovea in colour-blind and normal subjects. J Physiol. 1949 Dec;110(3-4):422–446. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1949.sp004450. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Wooten B. R., Wald G. Color-vision mechanisms in the peripheral retinas of normal and dichromatic observers. J Gen Physiol. 1973 Feb;61(2):125–145. doi: 10.1085/jgp.61.2.125. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Physiology are provided here courtesy of The Physiological Society

RESOURCES