Mechanisms of human color constancy underpinning stable visual perception

Abstract

When we say “a green car,” it seems as if the color is a characteristic of the object itself. However, color is a sensation created in our brain based on reflected light from the object. If the scene lighting changes, the reflected light changes accordingly. Thus, the color appearance of the object should also change, but we can still recognize the car we parked in the morning as “a green car” even when we return at dusk. This is due to a phenomenon called color constancy, which maintains stable color perception regardless of the lighting environment. How does our visual system create a robust visual world based on extremely mutable sensory signals? This article explains mechanisms supporting human color constancy.