Passion for pathology: beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Abstract

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the editorial by G. Bussolati on the mental processes that lead to pathological diagnoses [2], which is the first published approach to this process. We would like to stress/add a few points that we think are of great importance. Besides the perception of form, color is important for detecting objects and patterns that would otherwise not be noticed. We all know from experience that black and white microscopic figures loose much of their information content. A haematoxylin–eosin-stained glass slide makes us look twice if it is over-stained with haematoxylin, since we have unconsciously associated “bluish” with hypercellular/suspicious lesions. Color opponency, simultaneous color contrast and color constancy are the key features of color vision. Color is coded in the retina and in the lateral geniculate nucleus by color-opponent cells and processed in the cortex by concentric double-opponent cells in the blob zones (area V1 of the cortex) [3].