Abstract
Midget retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) make up the majority of foveal RGCs in the primate retina. The receptive fields of midget RGCs exhibit both spectral and spatial opponency and are implicated in both color and achromatic form vision, yet the exact mechanisms linking their responses to visual perception remain unclear. Efforts to develop color vision models that accurately predict all the features of human color and form vision based on midget RGCs provide a case study connecting experimental and theoretical neuroscience, drawing on diverse research areas such as anatomy, physiology, psychophysics, and computer vision. Recent technological advances have allowed researchers to test some predictions of color vision models in new and precise ways, producing results that challenge traditional views. Here, we review the progress in developing models of color-coding receptive fields that are consistent with human psychophysics, the biology of the primate visual system and the response properties of midget RGCs.
Highlights
The first stage of visual processing occurs in the retina, an outpost of the brain located at the back of the eye
The midget retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) receptive field has a center-surround organization (Kuffler, 1953). This receptive field compares the photon catch in the single L- or M-cone center to the photon catch in neighboring L/M-cones in the surround (Figure 1C). Since this configuration compares the activity of cones that differ in both spatial location and spectral sensitivity, midget RGCs have been implicated in both color and spatial vision (Schiller et al, 1990; Martin et al, 2011)
The receptive field structure of L vs. M midget RGCs is consistent with a role in edge detection
Summary
The first stage of visual processing occurs in the retina, an outpost of the brain located at the back of the eye. This receptive field compares the photon catch in the single L- or M-cone center to the photon catch in neighboring L/M-cones in the surround (Figure 1C) Since this configuration compares the activity of cones that differ in both spatial location and spectral sensitivity, midget RGCs have been implicated in both color and spatial vision (Schiller et al, 1990; Martin et al, 2011). We review evidence for the role of midget RGC receptive fields as the first step for detection of two elementary visual features, (1) hue detectors which encode information about spectral reflectances of surfaces as red, green, blue and yellow percepts, (2) high acuity edge detectors which encode the boundaries of objects as required for form vision.
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