Neural Plasticity
Volume 9 (2002), Issue 3, Pages 205-216
doi:10.1155/NP.2002.205

Experience-Dependent Color Constancy in Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

I. E. Intskirveli, M. O. Roinishvili, and A. R. Kezeli

Laboratory of Physiology of Vision, I. Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Georgian Academy of Sciences. 14, L. Gotua St., Tbilisi 380060, Georgia, USA

Copyright © 2002 I. E. Intskirveli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We investigated the ability to recognize the color of surfaces in fish (Poecilia reticulata), bred from birth in conditions of artificial light with constant spectral content. The capacity for color constancy significantly deteriorated when compared that to the control group. Further alteration of lighting conditions and transfer into natural daylight conditions restored the suppressed function to its normal level. We suggest that the color constancy function belongs in the visual system-response functions, the full development of which requires the accumulation of individual visual experience.