To date, most neuroimaging studies have tried to localize large regions in
the brain that are responsible for specific behaviors or mental operations.
Psychological theory, however is more concerned with the nature of mental,
functions: than with the locations of their neural substrates. This articl
e views work that moves beyond functional anatomy to measure how color is r
epresented by neurons in visual cortex. The general approach areas under in
vestigation are three basic steps: First, the localized in the brain. Secon
d, responses of these areas are measured to sets of systematically varying
stimuli, designed to uncover the nature of cortical representations. Third,
the neuroimaging data: are compared with behavioral data measured with the
same stimuli. Results obtained using this approach support the hypothesis
that primary visual cortex contains color-opponent neurons that support per
ception.