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Functional aspects of colour processing within the human brain

In a seminal work, Ungerleider and Mishkin (1982) offered substantial evidence that two separate visual pathways coding what/where-- exist within the primate brain. Recently, human evidence has resulted in the what/where pathways being reconsidered in terms of ventral stream (vision for perception) and dorsal stream (vision for action; Goodale & Milner, 1992). Consistently, many studies have demonstrated that there is an overrepresentation of magnocellular (luminance) information within the dorsal stream; parvocellular input (colour, shape, consistancy) represents the primary source of information for the ventral stream. Although luminance contrast is important in perceiving moving objects, colour discrepancies help the visual system to identify the detailed characteristics of the environment and, subsequently, to prepare the motor system for action. This thesis endeavors to determine the role played by colour, in contrast with luminance, in influencing the programming and control movement production. Using a grasping paradigm and two different luminance conditions (iso-luminance vs. heteroluminance) within two separate experiments (experiment 1 programming; experiment 2 online control), we show that chromatic information can be successfully be used by motor circuits to complete the grasping task faultlessly. Although significant temporal delays in terms of reaction time and movement time between colour and luminance processing are identified, the human visual system seems able to fully integrate colour features for action with no significant spatial error cost.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-04282006-131528
Date01 May 2006
CreatorsGeorgescu, Andrei
ContributorsSpink, Kevin S., Saucier, Deborah M., Maraj, Brian, Chilibeck, Philip D., Binsted, Gordon
PublisherUniversity of Saskatchewan
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-04282006-131528/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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