Decoding of EEG signals reveals non-uniformities in the neural geometry of colour

The idea of colour opponency maintains that colour vision arises through the comparison of two chromatic mechanisms, red versus green (RG) and yellow versus blue (YB). The four unique hues, red, green, blue, and yellow, are assumed to appear at the null points of these the two chromatic systems. However, whether unique hues have a distinct signature that can be reliably discerned in neural activity is still an open question. Here we hypothesise that, if unique hues represent a tractable cortical state, they should elicit more robust activity compared to non-unique hues. We use a spatiotemporal decoding approach to reconstruct an activation space for a set of unique and intermediate hues across a range of luminance values. We show that electroencephalographic (EEG) responses carry robust information about isoluminant unique hues within a 100-300 ms window from stimulus onset. Decoding is possible in both passive and active viewing tasks, but is compromised when concurrent high luminance contrast is added to the colour signals. The efficiency of hue decoding is not entirely predicted by their mutual distance in a nominally uniform colour space. Instead, the encoding space shows pivotal non-uniformities which suggest that anisotropies in neurometric hue-spaces are likely to represent perceptual unique hues. Furthermore, the neural code for hue temporally coincides with the neural code for luminance contrast, thus explaining why potential neural correlates of unique hues have remained so elusive until now.

A new transformation of cone responses to opponent color responses

It is widely agreed that the color vision process moves quickly from cone receptors to opponent color cells in the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus. Many workers have proposed the transformation or coding of long, medium, short (LMS) cone responses to r − g, y − b opponent color chromatic responses (unique hues) on the following basis: That L, M, S cones represent Red, Green, and Blue hues, with Yellow represented by (L + M), while r − g and y − b represent the opponent pairs of unique hues. The traditional coding from cones to opponent colors is that L − M gives r − g, while (L + M) − S gives y − b. This convention is open to several criticisms, and a new coding is required. A literature search produced 16 studies of cone responses LMS and 15 studies of spectral (i.e., ygb) opponent color chromatic responses, in terms of response wavelength peaks. Comparative analysis of the two sets of studies shows the means are almost identical (within 3 nm; i.e., L = y, M = g, S = b). Further, the response curves of LMS are very similar shapes to ygb. In sum, each set can directly transform to the other on this proposed coding: (S + L) − M gives r − g, while L − S gives y − b. This coding activates neural operations in the cardinal directions r − g and y − b.

Declines in Wavelength Discrimination and Shifts in Unique Hue with Hypoxia

INTRODUCTION: Hypoxia can be a problem for warfighters, compromising visual and cognitive performance. One area of study has been hypoxia-induced decrements in color vision.METHODS: The present study examined how hypoxia affected the perception of wavelengths associated with unique green and with unique yellow as well as discriminability by the blue vs. yellow (b-y) and the red vs. green (r-g) spectrally opponent color channels while breathing O2 levels found at sea level and at 5500 m. Measurements of wavelengths producing unique green (minimizing response by the b-y channel) and unique yellow (minimizing response by the r-g channel) preceded measurements of wavelength discriminability near those unique hues.RESULTS: Relative to sea level, unique yellow shifted to shorter wavelengths (0.54 nm) and unique green shifted to longer wavelengths (2.3 nm) under hypoxia. In terms of an equal psychophysical scale, both unique hues shifted by similar magnitudes. Wavelength discriminability of both color channels was compromised by statistically reliable amounts of 16–17% under hypoxia.DISCUSSION: These results were consistent with previous studies and the inference that postreceptor, M-cone neurons were differentially compromised by hypoxia. However, these measurable changes in color vision due to hypoxia were not perceived by the subjects.Bierman A, LaPlumm T, Rea MS. Declines in wavelength discrimination and shifts in unique hue with hypoxia. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(5):394–402.

Multiplicative modulations in hue-selective cells enhance unique hue representation

There is still much to understand about the color processing mechanisms in the brain and the transformation from cone-opponent representations to perceptual hues. Moreover, it is unclear which areas(s) in the brain represent unique hues. We propose a hierarchical model inspired by the neuronal mechanisms in the brain for local hue representation, which reveals the contributions of each visual cortical area in hue representation. Local hue encoding is achieved through incrementally increasing processing nonlinearities beginning with cone input. Besides employing nonlinear rectifications, we propose multiplicative modulations as a form of nonlinearity. Our simulation results indicate that multiplicative modulations have significant contributions in encoding of hues along intermediate directions in the MacLeod-Boynton diagram and that model V4 neurons have the capacity to encode unique hues. Additionally, responses of our model neurons resemble those of biological color cells, suggesting that our model provides a novel formulation of the brain’s color processing pathway.