Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Vision

Why do colours fade at the edges?

Nature volume 410, pages 886–887 (2001)Cite this article

Colour vision is much poorer in peripheral parts of the retina than in the centre. It seems that the usual explanation for that finding is flawed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 2: Colour opponency and a typical type I receptive field.
Figure 1: Photoreceptor wiring for a midget ganglion cell in the central retina.
Figure 3: Colour opponency in the centre and periphery of the retina.

References

  1. Martin, P. R., Lee, B. B., White, A. J. R., Solomon, S. G. & Rüttiger, L. Nature 410, 933–936 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wiesel, T. N. & Hubel, D. H. J. Neurophysiol. 29, 1115–1156 (1966).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Boycott, B. B. & Dowling, J. E. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 225, 109–184 (1969).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lennie, P., Haake, P. W. & Williams, D. R. in Computational Models of Visual Processing (eds Landy, M. S. & Movshon, J. A.) 71–82 (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Wässle, H. et al. Vision Res. 34, 561–579 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Mullen, K. T. & Kingdom, F. A. A. Vision Res. 36, 1995–2000 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Calkins, D. J. & Sterling, P. Neuron 24, 313–321 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Andrew Derrington

Authors
  1. Andrew Derrington
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew Derrington.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Derrington, A. Why do colours fade at the edges?. Nature 410, 886–887 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35073736

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35073736

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing