In 2007, Paul Martin co-authored a seminal review called the “Unsolved Mystery of Vision” which presented mammalian vision as a “field that is stuck”. Martin is uniquely qualified to make such a bold claim, having contributed enormously to our current understanding of primate vision and to the insights now challenging textbook explanations and revealing new directions. In the present article accompanying his 2023 Verriest award, Martin summarizes his research, focusing on the primate subcortical visual system. A key insight underlying Martin’s work was the value of marmosets as an animal model. By comparing dichromatic (red-green colorblind) and trichromatic marmosets, Martin explored the evolution of trichromatic color vision and its impact on spatial vision. The marmoset’s accessible koniocellular pathways enabled a detailed investigation into evolutionarily-ancient circuits for S-cones and revealed several surprises, including cortical-like receptive fields and binocular input. The response properties Martin identified have no place in standard models of primate vision and understanding them is now one of the most exciting areas in visual neuroscience. As marmoset research is now growing rapidly, Martin’s work not only advanced our understanding of primate vision, but also lays the foundation for future discoveries aiming to solve the long-standing mystery of vision.

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