[A model of color vision in trichromats and protans]

A model which explains the human vision protanopic deficiency and its biologic prototype with the absence of red-absorbing pigment (rabbit) was constructed from neuron-like elements. In behavioral experiments and by means of evoked potential technique it was shown that the rabbit's color space is characterized by a spherical four-dimensional with a reduction of red-coding area. Similar spherical four-dimensional structure of color space is characteristic for a group of protanopic human subjects. The perceptive space of another group of protanopic subjects (protanomals) is characterized by a reduction of both parts of the red-green opponent axis. These disorders are reproduced in the model either by a loss of some color-coding elements (the absence of the red-absorbing pigment as in protanops) or a shift of the spectral characteristics of the red pigment towards those of the green one (protanomals).