Normal and Defective Colour Vision

The topic of colour vision is one that integrates research from psychology, neuroscience, biology, opthalmology, physics, and genetics. How do we make sense of colour in the world, and how has such an ability evolved in humans? How are colours discriminated by the retina, and how does the brain interpret chromatic information? How can our genes influence the way in which we perceive colours? Why do some people have problems perceiving colours, and what occupational difficulties may they face? In what ways is colour vision altered by disease or toxins?John Mollon, Joel Pokorny, and Ken Knoblauch are leading authorities on the perception of colour. Together they have brought together a distinguished list of contributors to provide an interdisciplinary review of the field. An historical introduction marks the bicentennial of Thomas Young's trichromatic theory and provides useful background for the newcomer to the topic of colour vision. Carefully edited and indexed, this book is aimed at students and researchers in the visual sciences, in perceptual psychology, and in sensory neuroscience. It will be a definitive text on colour perception for some years to come.

Table of Contents:
Thomas Young and the Trichromatic Theory of Colour Vision Section I: Photoreceptors and their evolution 1: Ruprecht & Schertler: Electrons and x-rays reveal the structure of rhodopsin: A prototypical G protein-coupled receptor - Implications for colour vision 2: Jacobs & Degan: Photopigment polymorphism in prosimians and the origins of primate trichromacy 3: Sumner & Mollon: Did primate trichromacy evolve for frugivory or folivory? 4: Ahnelt, Moutairou, Glosmann & Kubber-Heiss: Lack of S-opsin expression in the brush tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus) and other mammals. Is the evolutionary persistence of S-cones a paradox? 5: Bowmaker, Parry & Mollon: The arrangement of L and M cones in human and a primate retina 6: McMahon, Neitz & Neitz: Comparison of human and monkey pigment gene promoters to evaluate DNA sequences proposed to govern L:M cone ratio Section II: Retinal Processes 7: Lee: Structure of receptive field centers of midget retinal ganglion cells 8: Marshak: The neural circuit providing input to midget ganglion cells 9: Sun, Lee & Ruttiger: Coding of position of achromatic and chromatic edges by retinal ganglion cells Section III: Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Colour Perception 10: Smith & Pokorny: Psychophysical correlates of parvo- and magnocellular function 11: Leonova, Pokorny and Smith: Spatial contrast sensitivity for pulsed and steady pedestal stimuli 12: Shevell & Cao: Chromatic assimilation: evidence for a neural mechanism 13: McKeefry, Parry & Murray: Reaction times to stimuli in isoluminant colour space 14: Robson, Kulikowski, Korostenskaja, Neveu, Hogg & Holder: Integration times reveal mechanisms responding to isoluminant chromatic gratings: a two-centre visual evoked potential study 15: Shapiro, Hood & Mollon: Temporal frequency and contrast adaptation 16: Le Rohellec, Brettel & Vienot: Contribution of achromatic and chromatic contrast signals to Fechner-Benham subjective colours 17: Mattiello, de Maneiro & Buglione: Sensitivity to movement of configurations of achromatic and chromatic points in amblyopic patients 18: Paramei & Jaschinski: Convergence as a function of chromatic contrast: a possible contributor to depth perception Secton IV: Rods and Colour Vision 19: Nerger, Volbrecht & Haase: The influence of rods on colour naming during dark adaptation 20: Buck & Knight: Stimulus duration affects rod influence on hue perception Section V: Natural Scenes and Colour Constancy 21: MacLeod: The Verriest Lecture: Colour discrimination, colour constancy and natural scene statistics 22: Foster, Amano & Nascimento: Tritanopic colour constancy under daylight changes? 23: Red-green colour deficiency and colour constancy under orthogonal-daylight changes 24: McCann: Calculating appearances in complex and simple images 25: Wolf & Hurlbert: The effect of global contrast distribution on colour appearance Section VI: Colour Spaces and their Variation 26: Koenderink: Schopenhauer's 'parts of daylight' in the light of modern colorimetry 27: Knoblauch: Representing an observer's matches in an alien colour space 28: Moreland & Westland: Macular pigment: Nature's notch filter 29: Smithson, Sumner & Mollon: How to find a tritan line 30: Deeb, Jagla, Campenhausen & Schramme: Some properties of the physiological colour system Section VII: Inherited Colour Deficiency: Molecular Genetics 31: Deeb, Jagla, Jagle, Hayashi & Sharpe: Genotypic variation in multi-gene dichromats 32: Jagla, Breitsprecher, Kucsera, Kovacs, Wissinger, Deeb & Sharpe: Hybrid pigment genes, dichromacy and anomalous trichromacy 33: Neitz, Bollinger & Neitz: Middle wavelength sensitive photopigment gene expression is absent in deuteranomalous colour vision Section VIII: Inherited Colour Deficiency: Psychophysics and Tests 34: Ventura, Silveira, Rodrigues, de Souza, Gualtieri, Bonci & Costa: Preliminary norms for the Cambridge Colour Test 35: Dain: Evaluation of 'Colour vision testing made easy' 36: Dain: Survey of the colour vision demands in fire-fighting 37: Lantern colour vision tests: one light or two 38: Birch: Extreme anomalous trichromatism 39: Jacobs, Calderone, Nolan, Crognale & Webster: Colour naming, colour categories and central colour-coding in a case of X-linked incomplete achromatopsia Section IX: Acquired Deficiencies of Colour Vision 40: Jacobs, Calderone, Sakai, Lewis & Fisher: Effects of retinal detachment on S and M cone function in an animal model 41: Ventura, Costa, Gualtieri, Nishi, Mantyjarvi & Maaranen: Colour vision in central serous chorioretinopathy 42: Ventura, Costa, Gualtieri, Nishi, Bernick, Bonci & de Souza: Early vision loss in diabetic patients assessed by the Cambridge Colour Test 43: Schroder, Erb, Falk, Schwartze, Radermacher & Winter: Colour-vision disturbances in patients with arterial hypertension 44: Silveira, Damim, da Conceicao Pinheiro, Rodrigues, Moura, Cortes & Mello: Visual dysfunction following mercury exposure by breathing mercury vapour or by eating mercury-contaminated food

Review :
Normal and Defective Colour Vision ... succeeds both in strengthening our understanding of existing findings and in identifying gaps in our knowledge of chromatic processes that can be addressed in future studies. In this respect, the book as a whole is significantly more valuable than the sum of its constituent parts and is therefore a 'must' for both students and researchers in this field. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol 7, No 10