Systematic measurement of human neonatal color vision

Abstract

We used a new time-efficient method to evaluate chromatic-achromatic discrimination in newborn (n = 36) and 1-month-old (n = 34) human infants. Results showed that 74% of newborns discriminated a 10.5 x 17.5 deg broadband red patch from all relative luminances of an achromatic background, but only 14% of newborns did so with a blue, 36% with a green, and 25% with a yellow patch. Most infants who "failed" did so at relative luminances very close to the respective photopic luminance match. At 1 month, performance improved somewhat although infants still show clear evidence of discriminating only the red patch. These results, the first to be obtained from individual newborns with a method incorporating a systematic variation of luminance, imply that early color vision is very limited. Possible photoreceptoral and neural bases for these immaturities are discussed.