Colour constancy and conscious perception of changes of illuminant

A sudden change in illuminant (e.g., the outcome of turning on a tungsten light in a room illuminated with dim, natural daylight) causes a “global” change in perceived colour which subjects often recognise as a change of illuminant. In spite of this distinct, global change in the perceptual appearance of the scene caused by significant changes in the wavelength composition of the light reflected from different objects under the new illuminant, the perceived colour of the objects remains largely unchanged and this cornerstone property of human vision is often described as instantaneous colour constancy (ICC). ICC mechanisms are often difficult to study. The generation of appropriate stimuli to isolate ICC mechanisms remains a difficult task since the extraction of colour signals is also confounded in the processing of spatial chromatic context that leads to ICC. The extraction of differences in chromaticity that describe spatial changes in the wavelength composition of the light on the retina is a necessary operation that must precede colour constancy computations. A change of illuminant or changes in the spectral reflectance of the elements that make up the scene under a constant illuminant cause spatial changes in chromatic context and are likely to drive colour constancy mechanisms, but not exclusively. The same stimulus changes also cause differences in local luminance contrast and overall light flux changes, stimulus attributes that can activate different areas of the visual cortex. In order to address this problem we carried out a series of dichoptic experiments designed to investigate how the colour signals from the two eyes are combined in dichoptically viewed Mondrians and the extent to which the processing of chromatic context in monocularly driven neurons contributes to ICC. The psychophysical findings show that normal levels of ICC can be achieved in dichoptic experiments, even when the subject remains unaware of any changes of illuminant. Functional MRI (fMRI) experiments using new stimuli that produce stimulation of colour constancy mechanisms only in one condition with little or no difference in the activity generated in colour processing mechanisms in both test and reference conditions were also carried out. The results show that the processing of ICC signals generates strong activation in V1 and the fusiform colour area (V4, V4A). Significant activation was also observed in areas V2 and V3.