The Cost of Trichromacy for Spatial Vision

An ideal trichromatic visual system would provide three different spectral samples at each and every point in the retinal image. One way to achieve this would be to construct a three-tiered cone mosaic with each class of photoreceptor in a different tier, much like color film. Each tier could then have the same spatial resolution as a single-tiered monochromatic mosaic and trichromacy could be incorporated without a loss of spatial resolution. The human cone mosaic, on the other hand, has its three cone submosaics interleaved in a. single tier. This means that on a small spatial scale the retina is not trichromatic since there can be only one spectral sample at each point in the retinal image. This chapter explores the cost for vision of incorporating trichromacy in a single-tiered cone mosaic.

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