Chromaticity and achromaticity. Evidence for a functional differentiation in visual field defects.

In the visual field defects of 10 patients who had suffered lesions in the postgeniculate part of the primary visual projection, red-green discrimination and achromatic target detection was tested. In addition, 8 of these patients were tested for detection of red and green targets. Targets were presented on a low photopic achromatic background, so that the red and green targets differed from the background both in intensity and in wavelength, whereas the achromatic target differed in intensity only. Six patients showed evidence of discriminating between red and green targets, 5 patients could also detect the colour targets, but none could detect the achromatic one that was presented at the same retinal position. These results imply that wavelength and intensity information are treated differentially, and suggest that these patients possess residual colour-opponent channels that subserve the defective part of the visual field.