Multiplicative modulations enhance diversity of hue-selective cells

There is still much to understand about the brain’s colour processing mechanisms and the transformation from cone-opponent representations to perceptual hues. Moreover, it is unclear which area(s) in the brain represent unique hues. We propose a hierarchical model inspired by the neuronal mechanisms in the brain for local hue representation, which reveals the contributions of each visual cortical area in hue representation. Hue encoding is achieved through incrementally increasing processing nonlinearities beginning with cone input. Besides employing nonlinear rectifications, we propose multiplicative modulations as a form of nonlinearity. Our simulation results indicate that multiplicative modulations have significant contributions in encoding of hues along intermediate directions in the MacLeod-Boynton diagram and that our model V2 neurons have the capacity to encode unique hues. Additionally, responses of our model neurons resemble those of biological colour cells, suggesting that our model provides a novel formulation of the brain’s colour processing pathway.