We examined individual differences in the color appearance of nonspectral lights and asked how they might be related to individual differences in sensitivity to chromatic stimuli. Observers set unique hues for moderately saturated equiluminant stimuli by varying their hue angle within a plane defined by the LvsM and SvsLM cone-opponent axes that are thought to characterize early postreceptoral color coding. Unique red settings were close to the +L pole of the LvsM axis, while green, blue, and yellow settings clustered along directions intermediate to the LvsM and SvsLM axes and thus corresponded to particular ratios of LvsM to SvsLM activity. Interobserver differences in the unique hues were substantial. However, no relationship was found between hue settings and relative sensitivity to the LvsM and SvsLM axes. Moreover, interobserver variations in different unique hues were uncorrelated and were thus inconsistent with a common underlying factor such as relative sensitivity or changes in the spectral sensitivities of the cones. Thus for the moderately saturated lights we tested, the unique hues appear largely unconstrained by normal individual differences in the cone-opponent axes. In turn, this suggests that the perceived hue for these stimuli does not depend on fixed (common) physiological weightings of the cone-opponent axes or on fixed (common) color signals in the environment.

Natural images have a characteristic spatial structure, with amplitude spectra that decrease with frequency roughly as 1/f. We have examined how contrast (pattern-selective) adaptation to this structure influences the spatial sensitivity of the visual system. Contrast thresholds and suprathreshold contrast and frequency matches were measured after adaptation to random samples from an ensemble of images of outdoor scenes or of synthetic images formed by filtering the amplitude spectra of noise over a range of spectral slopes. Adaptation selectively reduced sensitivity at low-to-medium frequencies, biasing contrast sensitivity toward higher frequencies. The pattern of aftereffects was similar for different natural image ensembles but varied with large changes in the slope of the noise spectra. Our results suggest that adaptation to the spatial structure in natural scenes may exert strong and selective influences on perception that are important in characterizing the normal operating states of the visual system.

Chromatic discrimination thresholds were measured with and without surrounds along two cardinal axes of chromaticity space. On one axis the level of short-wavelength-sensitive (SWS)-cone excitation was varied for constant long-wavelength-sensitive (LWS)-cone and medium-wavelength-sensitive (MWS)-cone excitations, and on the other axis there were equal and opposite changes in LWS-cone and MWS-cone excitations for constant levels of SWS-cone excitation. Results for two of three observers showed that with a dark surround, discrimination mediated by SWS cones was regulated by the level of SWS-cone excitation of the starting chromaticity, showing a function with the form of a threshold-versus-radiance function. For an equiluminant white or yellow surround, the discrimination for all three observers showed a minimum at the level of SWS-cone excitation of the surround, giving a V-shaped function for the white surround. An additional experiment with dimmer white surrounds indicated that while the minimum remained at the white point, the function gradually changed toward the shape with a dark surround. Discrimination thresholds mediated by LWS and MWS cones with a dark surround showed a minimum near the LWS-cone excitation of equal-energy white, giving a V-shaped function. The effect of yellow and white surrounds was to deepen the V. The data can be described by a model of chromatic discrimination incorporating a threshold term, a cone gain control, and an opponent gain control into two equations, one for SWS-cone discrimination and one for LWS-cone and MWS-cone discrimination.

Two sisters, heterozygous carriers for congenital X-linked protanopia, were diagnosed as normal trichromats by the Rayleigh match on the anomaloscope. The heterozygous state was established by molecular analysis of their visual pigment genes. The normal color match establishes that the spectral sensitivities of their long-wavelength-sensitive (LWS) and middle-wavelength-sensitive (MWS) cone visual photopigments are within normal variability. Their FM 100-hue test error scores were low, demonstrating superior chromatic discrimination. Heterochromatic flicker photometric (HEP) spectral sensitivities were like those of protanopes. The estimated LWS/MWS cone ratios from the HFP data were 0.09/1 and 0.03/1, compared with ratios in the range of 0.6/1 to 10/1 for typical normal trichromats. Measurements of chromatic grating acuity on chromatically selective backgrounds were performed to study the cone mosaic. The data were consistent with a sparsity of LWS cones. Both protan carriers showed normal spectral sensitivities for all three cone types under cone isolating chromatic adaptation and normal three-peaked curves for increment thresholds on a white pedestal. Hue estimation, run on one carrier was normal. The equilibrium yellow locus was measured in the other carrier and was in the range of normal trichromats. The data indicate that normal color vision can occur even when the LWS/MWS cone ratio is quite abnormal.