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.

  • Article
  • Published:

The effects of color on brightness

Nature Neuroscience volume 2, pages 1010–1014 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Observation of human subjects shows that the spectral returns of equiluminant colored surrounds govern the apparent brightness of achromatic test targets. The influence of color on brightness provides further evidence that perceptions of luminance are generated according to the empirical frequency of the possible sources of visual stimuli, and suggests a novel way of understanding color contrast and constancy.

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 1: Effect of increasing color information consistent with a particular condition of illumination on perceived brightness.
Figure 2: Effect of multiple colors on the relative brightness of equiluminant targets is not due to the number of distinct surfaces in the scene.
Figure 3: Effect of spectrally identical scenes on brightness perception.
Figure 4: Effect of inconsistent color information on the relative brightness of equiluminant targets.
Figure 5: Relation of these observations on brightness contrast to understanding brightness constancy.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Adelson, E. H. in The Cognitive Neurosciences 2nd edn. (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in press).

  2. Wallach, H. The perception of neutral colors. Sci. Am. 208, 107–116 (1963).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Land, E. H. Recent advances in retinex theory. Vision Res. 26, 7–21 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Katz, D. The World of Colour (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, 1935).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Brown, R. O. & MacLeod, I. A. Color appearance depends on the variance of the surround colors. Curr. Biol. 7, 844–849 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Williams, S. M., McCoy, A. N. & Purves, D. The influence of depicted illumination on perceived brightness. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 13296–13300 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Williams, S. M., McCoy, A. N. & Purves, D. An empirical explanation of brightness. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 13301– 13306 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lotto, R. B., Williams, S. M. & Purves, D. An empirical basis for Mach bands. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 5239–5244 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lotto, R. B., Williams, S. M. & Purves, D. Mach bands as empirically derived associations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 5245– 5250 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Purves, D., Shimpi, A. & Lotto R. B. An empirical explanation of the Cornsweet effect. J. Neurosci. 19, 8542–8551 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gilchrist, A. L. Perceived lightness depends on perceived spatial arrangement. Science 195, 185–187 ( 1977).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Knill, D. C. & Kersten, D. Apparent surface curvature affects lightness perception. Nature 351, 228– 230 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Adelson, E. H. Perceptual organization and the judgment of brightness. Science 262, 2042–2044 ( 1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gilchrist, A. L. et al. A new theory of lightness perception. Psychol. Rev. (in press).

  15. Kohlrausch, A. Der flimmerwert von lichtmischungen. Ber. D. Ges. Physiologie Exp. Pharmkologie 3, 589–591 (1920).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Yaguchi, H. & Ikeda, M. Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect investigated by the brightness additivity. J. Illumin. Inst. Japan 64, 566–570 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Purves, D. Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Purves, D., Polger, T. & Lotto, R. B. Color vision and the four-color map problem. J. Cogn. Neurosci. (in press).

  19. Land, E. H. Color vision and the natural image. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 45, 116–129 ( 1959).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Land, E. H. Color vision and the natural image. Part II. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 45, 636–644 ( 1959).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank David Coppola, David Fitzpatrick, Don Katz, Tom Polger, Len White and Mark Williams for helpful criticism. This work was supported by NIH grant #NS12987.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Box 3209, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, 27710 , North Carolina, USA

    R. Beau Lotto & Dale Purves

Authors
  1. R. Beau Lotto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dale Purves
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dale Purves.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lotto, R., Purves, D. The effects of color on brightness. Nat Neurosci 2, 1010–1014 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/14808

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/14808

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