Color Vision: From Genes to Perception [Paperback]

Karl R. Gegenfurtner (Editor), Lindsay T. Sharpe (Editor), B. B. Boycott (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052100439X | ISBN-13: 978-0521004398 | Publication Date: May 28, 2001

Color Vision: From Genes to Perception documents the present state of understanding regarding primate color vision in 20 review articles written by 35 leading international experts. The articles range from genes, the molecular genetics of the human cone photopigment genes, to perception, the color processing of complex scenes. Detailed overviews of such basic topics as cone spectral sensitivity and color processing in the retina and cortex are included. Introductions are given to important and innovative technologies such as molecular genetics, anatomical staining, visual psychophysics, intracellular and extracellular physiological recordings, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Color Vision is intended for graduate students and research specialists. By bringing together scientists from different disciplines, the book will clarify issues of general interest for the expert and non-expert alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This lovely book is written for professional vision scientists and their graduate students. Each chapter is written by an internationally well-respected expert on some aspect of color vision and each chapter begins with a simple, clearly written, up-to-date introduction to a topic within the wide range of topics included in modern color vision...If you are interested in color vision, and you should be, this book will be invaluable." Optometry and Vision Science

"For those with an interest in normal vision, the book is a solid summary of colour perception..." The Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences

"This is an excellent edited book containing contributions from most of the leading researchers in the field of primate colour vision." Trends in Neuroscience

"It is a very successful attempt to understand colour vision at all levels of processing: wavelength coding in photoreceptors, processing in the retina, cortical processing, and higher-order colour mechanisms...I really enjoyed reading this book. It reflects the state-of-the-art knowledge on colour processing and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a quantitative study of colour vision, be it the genetics, the functional anatomy, the neurophysiology, or the psychophysics of colour processing." Perception 2000

"The editors have brought together 35 leading researchers in colour vision to write a true reference text." Canadian Journal of Opthalmology

"...this is an excellent review of important topics in color vision. It is an invaluable reference for the researcher and guide for the student. I am happy to have it on my bookshelf and recommend it to the subscribers of Color Research and Application." Color Research and Application, Vivianne Smith

Book Description

Color Vision gives both the student and the specialist an introduction to and a detailed overview of the classical and newest findings about the molecular genetic, evolutionary, anatomical, physiological, and perceptual aspects of human and primate color vision. Bringing together scientists from many different disciplines, the book defines the present state-of-knowledge and clarifies issues of general interest for the expert and non expert alike. No other textbook about human color vision covers so many disciplines nor is so up-to-date or thorough in its treatment.

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052100439X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521004398
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,146,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The next classic in the color vision field, February 8, 2011

By 

Andrew Metha - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color Vision: From Genes to Perception (Paperback)

"Color Vision - from genes to perception" edited by Karl R. Gegenfurtner and Lindsay T. Sharpe. Cambridge university Press, Cambridge, 1999.

Upon receiving this book from the Nathan Library (Victorian College of Optometry), I got a bit nervous about the ambitious title: "... from Genes to Perception"! Indeed, this promises coverage of a vast scientific landscape conventionally considered more or less as separate islands of speciality. Even highly motivated readers not coerced to review would surely balk at a treatise spanning fields as diverse as molecular genetics and recombinant gene technology, in vivo high resolution retinal imaging, neuro-anatomy, histology and serial electron micrograph reconstruction, intensive computer modelling, retinal and cortical physiology (intracellular and extracellular), and psychology. In this volume however, Gegenfurtner and Sharpe have managed to direct 35 leaders in each of these fields to construct 20 comprehensive yet comprehensible review chapters and have used the common theme of color vision to draw these islands together. Reading this book, an archipelago now can be envisioned: on clear days, views may be gleaned from one island to the next.

The stated aim of this book is to "take a snapshot of our understanding about the visual neuroscience of color vision". This interesting story is told in 4 sections: Part 1 concentrates on photoreceptors and includes a well-presented discussion of the genes involved in coding the protein opsins fundamental to color vision - what happens normally and how things can go awry for color-deficient observers. Details of how light is transduced by the cones to provide the initial biophysical signal for vision is next discussed, followed by presentation of new evidence about how (using adaptive optics) and why (from an evolutionary viewpoint) different cones are distributed in the manner observed within the retinal matrix. Part 2 focuses on retinal circuitry and how the synaptic connections are made between each type of neurone (that we know about!) from the photoreceptors to the ganglion cells. The discussion always highlights the functional point of view: how the essential purpose of color-vision is served by the observed retinal wiring. In a tacit admission that we lack appreciation of the significance, if any, of the thalamus for color (or any other visual aspect), Part 3 jumps straight to cortical processing. Here results from psychophysical, electrophysiological and neuroimaging experiments are considered, allowing a glimpse of how the higher-order neurones of the brain might concertedly act to process information about the chromatic properties of the seen world. Finally, Part 4 considers our perception of color, including current thoughts on how and why things appear they way they do; the subtleties of chromatic illusions and how these may be manifestations of a visual system changing its operating characteristics in order to work most efficiently.

It is often disappointing that books about color vision fail to incorporate color pictures which do the topic justice - this is an exception. The glossy hard cover suggests an attention to detail in production that is immediately borne out upon opening - the quality of the text layout is superb as are the many reproductions of photographs and diagrams.

I really like this book - its scope is broad but happily in an easy-to-read form that is accessible to the interested and moderately informed lay reader. It makes a welcome contribution to the literature that has been calling for a review since the dating of such "classics" as Robert Boynton's "Human color vision". This book is undoubtedly the next classic in the color vision field, and is a real asset to any library.

Andrew Metha
13 June 2000.