COLOUR VISION

In daylight, most objects have colour. This

depends on:
1- Quality of light that illuminates them.
2- Their individual capacities for absorbing
some wavelengths and reflecting others to
the observer. •
3-One's physiological and psychological
interpretations of these incident rays.
- :PHYSICAL BASIS OF COLOUR
A- light :
A beam of whit light may be
separated into its component
wavebands by bending it through
a media that is denser than air,
when it is made to strike obliquely.
The rays of shorter wavelengths
are slowed down more than the
longer ones so that they suffer the
greatest deflection from the
original angle of incidence,
and the longer wavelengths emerge
most nearly in the original
direction, thus is a "spectrum"
formed by "dispersion" of white
light through a prism. Similarly it
may be dispersed by traversing a
"diffraction grating such as a
glass plate bearing a series of
very fine parallel scorings.

In nature such diffraction gratings

are found in the wings of isects,in
peacock feathers or in rain, and
each may transform the light that
strikes it into a
display of rainbow colours.
Although the transmission
from one waveband to
another is gradual, the
human eye can recognise
only the seven colours of
the rainbow with an
occasional in­termediate
one. Their respective
wavelengths are
approximately as follows:

VIBGYOR- Violet
380- 430um-Blue 460um,
Blue green 460 - 500
n,Green 500 – 570,
yellow 570-600 Orange
600 - 630 um, Red 630-
700,
1 um = 1 nm, nanometer
= 10 A° Angstrom
b- Pigments;
(Absorption of selective
wavelength) the atoms
and molecules of any
individual pigment being
capable of emitting and
absorbing light of certain
wavelengths according to
their periods of vibration.
The range of colours that
a pigment can reflect is
often wide, and will then
vary with the colour of the
illuminating light.
Analysis of light:
The amount of light (in
candles per unit area) is
estimated objectively as the
luminance( It describes the amount of
light that passes through or is emitted from a
particular area, and falls within a given solid angle
and subjectively as the
.)
luminosity' (the apparent
brightness).
The colour of light is
assessed objectively in the
terms of dominant
wavelength (nm) subjectively
as hue and in the terms of
purity ( = the degree of
freedom from admixed light
of other wavelengths) which
corresponds subjectively to
the saturation (i.e., the
degree of "colour-fullness"
caused by coloured lights of
greater purity).
Hue =determines the
weakness or intensity
of a colour
Tints = colours with
white admixed, e.g.,
pink. But first, this is the difference between
Shades = colours with :a tint, a tone and a shade
Color plus black added = shade
black admixed, e.g., Color plus gray added = tone
olive and brown. Color plus white added = tint
 ;Colour mixtures
A- Mixture of wavelengths
(light):

White light can be

reconstituted by remixing
its spectral hue
components.
Any spectral hue can be
reproduced visually by a
mixture in appropriate
proportions of hues to
either side of it .
Thus red+ yellow gives an intermediate hue
near to red (orange-red), or to yellow
(orange-yellow) according to the
preponderant luminosity of the red or
yellow used. For wavelengths below 560
nm the resultant mixtures can produce the
selected hue,

but these will always appear less saturated

and as the parent hues become further
apart this degree of unsaturation increases
until white light results; such hues that will
admix to produce white light are known as
complementry colours e.g.. red + greenish
blue, orange + cyan blue, greenish yellow +
violet, or green + purple, and any pair of
these produces white. Colour mixtures still
further apart spectrally will yield purple. It is
thus possible to select three spectral waves
which together will produce white light and
any intervening colour by a judicious
mixture of two of them, and such a triad are
then called primary colours or matching
stimuli (e.g., red, yellow, blue).
components - red, yellow
and blue, and these alone
retain their colour in the
rertina (where all colours
finally are registered as
Grey). Other colours change perceptibly
as they are seen more obliquely (Stiles
Crawford effect) purple be­coming increasingly
At the macula,
orange,... etc
the yellow pigment
absorbing rays from the
violet end of the spectrum
with less values to the
reds and oranges.
 ;Purkinje phenomenon
Is a shift insensitivity of
the eye during dark
adaptation,
associated with
decreased cone
function, and is
manifest by
equalization of
colours. Hue
discrimination
disappears but
luminosity
discrimination
remains
Or, when the eye compares light of different
wavelengths but of equal luminance: yellow (600-500
nm) appears brightest under photopic conditions,
while the green (550-520 nm) appears brightest
under scotopic conditions. If you compare the
luminosities of the colours like orange (650 nm)
and yellow (550 nm), under photopic conditions the
ratio of luminance will be (13:100)
the yellow is only 8 times brighter, under scotopic
conditions the ratio will be (2:56), i.e.,
the yellow is 28 times brighter than the orange.
 MECHANISM OR THEORY OF
COLOUR VISION
There are many theories, but there is now
agreement that the mechanisms of
reception at the retinal level is trichromatic
(Young) and the mechanism of
transmision along the visual pathway
depends on Hering's opponent colour
theory.
 Young Trichromatic Theory
Since colour sense exists
only under photopic
conditions, cones are the
colour receptors. Since it
is not reasonable to think
that there are as much
cones in the retina
corresponding to all
colours present in
nature, Young postulated
that there are
three types of cones.
Experimental evidences for this trichromatic
theory is:-9-
 .A-Mixing 3 main (coloured lights) reproduce all colours in nature

b- Electrophvsiologic studies of Granit: He found that there

are 4 types of responders, by measuring potentials at
ganglion cells by microelectrodes: 3 of these are
specific (red, green and blue) and the 4th corresponds
to the photopic light sensitivity curve. He concluded
that there are 2 types of ganglion cells:
1- Dominator, photopic, not for colour but for white.
2- Modulator-3, which gives the uncolored image of the
dominator its tone or colour.
This conclusion corresponds to the theory that says: ther
are 3 types of cones each containing a photosensitive
substance, to each 3 modulator type-cone is added one
dominator cone, i.e., receptor units of tetrad, a
horizontal cell unites the function of the 4 cones . If the
four cones are equally simulated -the 3 chromatic
cones inhibit each other and the sensation of white
results. If there is unequal stimulation to the chromatic
cones, one specific ganglion cell will be activated and a
colour sensation results.
c- Reflection densimetry of Rushton- proved in an indirect way, the presence of
3 photosensitive pigments in the living eye of normal subjects, while in
colour blind they found one or 2 pigments only.
If isolated retinae are exposed to red, or blue, or green light, thus bleaching the
corresponding pigment, and then the transmission of light is plotted in a
curve, 3 pigments will be found: one for red, green and blue.
* Thus although the 3 specific pigments were not isolated chemically in the
human eye, we consider that there are 3 types of cones each containing a
specific visual pigment: one absorbs red light (590 nm), one green (540 nm)
and one blue (450 nm): The blue receptors are less in number, red and
green receptors vary from person to person, and in relation to each other.
C-Clinical observations - colour
blindness
is well explained by the trichromatic
theory.
1-Anomalous trichromats - partial
defect in function of one type of
cones:
colour protanomaly (proto - red);
2nd colour deuteranomaly (deuter
green);
3rd colour, blue: tritanomaly
2- Dichromate - total absence of one
type of cones: Prbtanope (red
blind),
deuteranope, (green) and tritanope
(blue).
3-Monochromat or achromat, there is
only one typ^ of receptors.
e- Negative coloured
after-images: if a
green object is looked
at for a long time,
then * replaced by
white: the green
receptors will be
fatigued (not
stimulated by white),
the white will appear
purple or bluish red
because
preponderance of the
unfatigued red and
blue receptors.
f- Binocular cortical fusion of colours: one can fuse
red from one eye with green from the other eye
to produce yellow. This fusion occurs in the
cortex not in the retina,

since destruction of occipital lobes in dogs or

monkeys leaves only scotopic vision, i.e., cone
vision is more corticalized than rod vision). This
is against Hering's theory which postulates a
yellow receptor in addition to the three others.
g- Neuro-anatomical arrangement of the lateral geniculate
body in 6 layers: 3 layers receive from each eye.
H-colour printing, photography and television, is based on
trichromatic basis.
i- Bezold-Bruke hue shift, with different intensity of the
same wavelength: when light of special hue
(wavelength) increases in intensity, it gives the sensation
of another colour or hue or wavelength (hue shift). This
is explained by that a given in­tensity of a given
wavelength stimulates a particular type of cone, when
the intensity increases stimulation of other cones
(carrying other pigments) occurs, giving the sen­sation of
another hue or colour
 the objections to the theory are
i-Visual acuity with red light (which
stimulates only some cones) is not less
than visual acuity with white light
(which stimulates all cones).
Ii-Psychologists consider white and
yellow as distinct colours, and not as
the composites of the three primary
colours.
 Transmission of colour message -2
“hering's opponent colour theory
Trichromatic theory does not explain all
colour phenomena:
a- Subjectively, people identify 4 and not
3 fundamental colours: red, green,blue
and yellow. ,
B-Consecutive sensation or colour after
images: if an eye looks'to red light then
close the eyes, it will see the
complementary green. Hering postulated
that the (photoreceptors simply detect (light)
colour discrimination starts beyond the
retina in the coding mechanisms of visual
pathways.
There are 3 systems of transmission,
functioning in pairs: black-white, red-
green and blue-yellow. The colour of one
system opposes the other and never
mix,
e.g., when red signal is sent to the brain, a
green cannot be sent simultaneously.
 Colour-coded cells in the
nervous system
In man, there are
(1) Receptors with photopigments of
different spectral sen­sitivities (red -
green - blue), and
(2) Neural system organized to detect
different degree of activation of these
receptors
There are two types of neural
cells (in lateral geniculate
body).
a- Spectrally, non-opponent (no
on an off) cells: Signal only
differences in intensity, and
sum the outputs .
b- Spectrally opponent cells:
which respond to
wavelength in one way, e.g.,
on, ; to some wavelength
and off to other wavelength.
There are two types:
1- Single spectrally opponent
cells respond to a particular
wavelength in the whole
receptive field.
2- Double spectrally opponent
cells: e.g, red-on in the center
of the receptive field and
green-on in the periphery. ,
There are two pairs of spectrally opponent cells:
1-(R + G-) or (R- G + ) cells: which difference the
outputs from the red and
green cones.
2-(Y + B-) and (B + Y-) cells: which difference the
red and blue cone outputs.
The same receptors act on both intensity-coding
achromatic pathways (black-
white) and on colour coding pathways.
According to this theory, complementary colours
are antagonistic and an­tagonise each other if
presented simultaneously to the retina, leaving
only the effect of the white substance, which all
the visible wavelengths produce.
This theory however, accepts the trichomacy
of vision. We can conclude that colour
vision is trichromatic at the retinal level,
but is transmitted in the visual path­ways in
opponent colour signals. ,
:COLOUR BLINDNESS