What studies of macaque monkeys have told us about human color vision

•The macaque is valuable for neurophysiological studies of trichromatic vision.•The visual systems of macaques and humans are similar but not identical.•Understanding these differences facilitates data interpretation.

Animal models are a necessary component of systems neuroscience research. Determining which animal model to use for a given study involves a complicated calculus. Some experimental manipulations are easily made in some animal models but impossible in others. Some animal models are similar to humans with respect to particular scientific questions, and others are less so. In this review, I discuss work done in my laboratory to investigate the neural mechanisms of color vision in the rhesus macaque. The emphasis is on the strengths of the macaque model, but shortcomings are also discussed.