University of SaskatchewanHARVEST
  • Login
  • Submit Your Work
  • About
    • About HARVEST
    • Guidelines
    • Browse
      • All of HARVEST
      • Communities & Collections
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
      • This Collection
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
    • My Account
      • Login
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
      View Item 
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item

      Functional aspects of colour processing within the human brain

      Thumbnail
      View/Open
      Georgescu.pdf (842.2Kb)
      Date
      2006-04-06
      Author
      Georgescu, Andrei
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
      Show full item record
      Abstract
      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.
      Degree
      Master of Science (M.Sc.)
      Department
      College of Kinesiology
      Program
      College of Kinesiology
      Supervisor
      Binsted, Gordon
      Committee
      Spink, Kevin S.; Saucier, Deborah M.; Maraj, Brian; Chilibeck, Philip D.
      Copyright Date
      April 2006
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-04282006-131528
      Subject
      colour
      vision
      perception
      luminance
      action
      grasping
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      University of Saskatchewan

      University Library

      © University of Saskatchewan
      Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy