opponent process theory of color vision
any one of a class of theories describing color vision on the basis of the activity of mechanisms, which may correspond to cells, that respond to red–green, blue–yellow, or black–white. The Hering theory of color vision, the most highly developed opponent process theory, contrasted with the Young–Helmholtz theory of color vision, which relied on receptors sensitive to specific regions of the spectrum. Although both theories explained many phenomena, both had deficiencies. In the 1950s, Leo Hurvich and Dorothea Jameson suggested that both theories were correct, the Young–Helmholtz model describing a first stage of processing in the visual system whose outputs were then fed into an opponent process. This combined theory is known as the dual process theory of color vision. All three theories were proposed long before physiological studies of retinal neurons had been carried out, yet they were
successful in predicting the responses of cells under most conditions.