The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK.
Neuroscientist. 2010 Oct;16(5):508-18. doi: 10.1177/1073858409355817. Epub 2010 Jun 7.
Illustrations of the brain are increasingly often colored, both on depictions of brain structure and on displays representing brain function. As in many other areas of science, illustrations may have considerable influence on how neuroscientific concepts are envisaged and presented, and color being such a dominant feature of many illustrations of the brain, the rationale, methodology, and implications of using color merit exploration. The different ways of harnessing color depending on whether brain structure or function is being illustrated; the selection of particular colors and color scale; the advantages and disadvantages of color compared to black and white, including the detection of just noticeable differences in the display; the consequences of incorporating color and the attribution of importance; and also the contribution and perceptions of the viewer raise important issues. Consideration of these and a number of related issues, including the wider context of color in illustration, leads to the conclusion that the addition of color represents a powerful and at times unrivalled technique that can be employed in the study of the brain, yet adding color is sometimes ill considered and can prove superfluous, ambiguous, or misleading.
大脑的图像越来越多地被着色，无论是在描绘大脑结构还是在显示大脑功能时。在许多其他科学领域中，图像可能会对神经科学概念的设想和呈现产生重大影响，而颜色又是大脑图像的一个主要特征，因此，使用颜色的原理、方法和影响值得探讨。根据要说明的是大脑结构还是功能，有不同的方法来利用颜色；选择特定的颜色和色标；与黑白相比，颜色的优缺点，包括在显示中检测到难以察觉的差异；包含颜色的后果和重要性的归因；以及观察者的贡献和看法，这些都提出了重要的问题。考虑到这些问题和一些相关的问题，包括在说明中颜色的更广泛背景，得出的结论是，添加颜色代表了一种强大且有时无与伦比的技术，可以用于大脑的研究，但是添加颜色有时考虑不周，并且可能是多余的、模糊的或误导性的。
