Perception of color depends on neural processes of eye and brain. The color and brightness of a single, isolated light are closely related to the light s physical characteristics, but the same light may be perceived to have a very different color and brightness appearance when viewed as part of a complex scene. A fundamental unsolved problem in vision is how the color and brightness appearance of a light depend on the context of other stimuli in view. While previous research has considered this problem, most studies have used very simple visual stimuli such as a test field superimposed upon a uniform background or within a uniform surrounding field. This work has revealed basic mechanisms affecting color perception but does not consider important neural processes that depend on visual stimulation that is more complex than a uniform background or surround. Recent studies show that color perception depends strongly on even sparsely represented chromaticities within a modestly complex, inhomogeneous visual stimulus. The proposed research will evaluate fundamental properties of color and brightness perception in complex scenes, by testing specific hypotheses concerning neural mechanism spatial, temporal and chromatic characteristics. The physiological locus of these neural mechanisms also will be investigated. This will be achieved by making psychophysical measurements of color perception with many different types of carefully designed inhomogeneous fields. The appearance of both increments and decrements will be studied in order to investigate the full range of color percepts that occur in natural scenes. Overall, this research will study neural processes that mediate color appearance under conditions closer to natural viewing than have been studied in most previous research. Reduced color vision in patients is typically assessed with tests of color matching or discrimination that use very simple fields. Neural mechanisms affected only by more complex fields, as occur in natural viewing, are not evaluated. A long-term goal of this research is to understand fully the neural processes mediating color and brightness perception of arbitrarily complex visual stimuli, and to develop tests to assess functioning of these neural mechanism.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY004802-17
Application #
6178758
Study Section
Visual Sciences B Study Section (VISB)
Program Officer
Oberdorfer, Michael
Project Start
1983-09-01
Project End
2002-08-31
Budget Start
2000-09-01
Budget End
2002-08-31
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$201,719
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Chicago
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
225410919
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60637
Elliott, Sarah L; Shevell, Steven K (2018) Illusory edges comingle with real edges in the neural representation of objects. Vision Res 144:47-51
Shevell, Steven K; Wang, Wei (2016) Color-motion feature-binding errors are mediated by a higher-order chromatic representation. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 33:A85-92
Stepien, Natalie N; Shevell, Steven K (2015) The role of color in motion feature-binding errors. J Vis 15:8
D'Antona, Anthony D; Christiansen, Jens H; Shevell, Steven K (2014) Separating monocular and binocular neural mechanisms mediating chromatic contextual interactions. J Vis 14:
Wang, Wei; Shevell, Steven K (2014) Do S cones contribute to color-motion feature binding? J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 31:A60-4
Elliott, Sarah L; Shevell, Steven K (2013) Perceived segmentation of center from surround by only illusory contours causes chromatic lateral inhibition. Vision Res 86:66-70
Allen, Elizabeth C; Beilock, Sian L; Shevell, Steven K (2012) Individual differences in simultaneous color constancy are related to working memory. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 29:A52-9
Kang, Para; Shevell, Steven K (2012) Feature binding of a continuously changing object. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 29:A128-32
Shevell, Steven K (2012) The Verriest Lecture: color lessons from space, time and motion. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 29:A337-45
Autrusseau, Florent; Thibos, Larry; Shevell, Steven K (2011) Chromatic and wavefront aberrations: L-, M- and S-cone stimulation with typical and extreme retinal image quality. Vision Res 51:2282-94

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