Coding Mechanisms and Contextual Influences in Color Vision

Abstract

Coding of color in the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus is dominated by cone opponency, and selectivities cluster around the corresponding color space axes. In the visual cortex, a more distributed representation for color stimuli is found. Comparison of this population code for color with the coding of other visual features such as orientation indicates similar coding mechanisms for both features. Further similarities can be observed with respect to contextual interactions. The visual context affects processing and perception of both color and orientation, and results of psychophysical measurements indicate that the properties of these interactions in both domains are similar. These findings suggest that the visual cortex makes use of the same neural mechanisms for the processing of color as for other visual features.