Colour perception

Early visual experience is indispensable for development of normal colour perception, says study.

Japanese researchers have now revealed that early visual experience is indispensable for the development of normal colour perception.

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Yoichi Sugita of the Neuroscience Research Institute in Japan's Tsukuba prefecture, has shown that visual experience in early infancy is indispensable for normal development of the colour constancy.

Sugita raised baby monkeys for nearly a year in a separate room where the illumination came from only monochromatic lights. After extensive training afterwards, the monkeys were able to perform colour matching tasks, but their judgment of colour similarity was quite different from that of normal animals.

Also the reared monkeys had severe deficits in colour constancy and their color vision was very much wavelength-dominated, such that they were unable to compensate for the changes in wavelength composition.

From these outcomes, the researcher concluded that early visual experience is indispensable for normal colour perception.