Abstract
Substantial age-related change in the spectral distribution of the light reaching the retina is known to occur as a result of lenticular senescence. These changes are accompanied by neural losses in cone pathways. It is, therefore, often expected (and even stated) that color perception will be altered in the elderly, especially when tested with stimuli that remove the normal cues for color constancy. This expectation is wrong, as we have demonstrated by measuring age-related changes in color appearance using several different approaches and exploring a wide gamut of color space. Here we summarize experiments that support the view that this stability of color perception across the life span is due to compensation by the visual system for lenticular senescence and neural losses in order to renormalize chromatic mechanisms.
Grant Identification: National Institute on Aging (grant AG04058).