Abstract

Color matching is the definitive technique for documenting normal color vision and for diagnosing congenital color vision defects. The efficacy of the technique lies in the widely accepted supposition that color matching directly reflects the number and spectral sensitivities of the active receptor types. Color matching behavior may be modified by systemic or ophthalmic disease. There are two major ways in which disease alters color matching; the match-midpoint may be shifted (an alteration of normal color vision) and/or the match-width may be enlarged (a reduction of normal color vision). The nature of the change often allows precise interpretation of the etiology of the functional change. Simplified procedures which we use for clinical evaluation include a match of a yellow to a mixture of red and green (the Rayleigh equation) and a match of blue-green to a mixture of blue and green (the Moreland equation). To evaluate reduced forms of color vision we use a match of a green to a mixture of red and blue (a dichromatic coefficient). Examples are given of alteration systems (both prereceptoral and retinal) and reduction systems (both receptoral and neural).

© 1986 Optical Society of America