Form-Color Aftereffects in Human Vision

Abstract

An engaging problem is how the visual system processes combinations of color and form. One logically possible view is that color and form are processed quite independently (at some level of the visual system). Thus, some mechanisms might respond selectively to form regardless of color and other mechanisms might respond to color regardless of form. Evidence for such form-selective mechanisms has been obtained (Yund et al., 1973; Gouras and Krüger, in preparation) from microelectrode recordings of specific single cells in the visual cortex of rhesus monkey. These cells respond selectively to a specific form whether the form is portrayed by color gradients alone or by luminance gradients. Thus, although these mechanisms respond to color information, they do not convey specific information about color. The mechanisms are from-selective and not color-selective.