James Gordon

Dr. James Gordon is Professor of Psychology at Hunter College of CUNY.

He received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Rochester and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Brown University. His research interests concern the neural mechanisms underlying processing of color and form information by the visual system.  Recent work has focused on the nature of the parallel pathways in humans that are responsible for encoding and transmitting visual information, and on the development of these pathways from infancy through adulthood.  Psychophysical experiments utilize hue scaling and chromatic adaptation to isolate chromatic and luminance pathways, while physiological studies use the visual evoked potential to study the development of these pathways in humans. His current research involves studying color and brightness interactions, and examining deficits in visual processing found in pathologies including glaucoma, autism, and schizophrenia that may aid in their early diagnosis and possible treatment.

Representative Publications

• Zemon V, Herrera S, Gordon J, Revheim N, Silipo G, Butler PD. (2021) "Contrast sensitivity deficits in schizophrenia: A psychophysical investigation." Eur J Neurosci. 2021;53:1155–1170. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15026
• Grose-Fifer, J., Lobel, M., diFilipo, D., & Gordon, J. (2020) "Low Spatial Frequency Sensitivity and Emotional Face Processing in Adolescents: An Event-related Potential Study", Developmental Neuropsychology, DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2020.1789144
• Shapley, R., Nunez, V., & Gordon, J. (2019). "Cortical double-opponent cells and human color perception". Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.04.001
• Zemon, V. & Gordon, J. (2018) "Quantification and Statistical Analysis of the Transient Visual Evoked Potential to a Contrast-Reversing Pattern: A Frequency-Domain Approach". European Journal of Neuroscience 48(4), 1765-1788. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14049.
• Nunez, V., Shapley, R.M. & Gordon, J. (2018) "Cortical double-opponent cells in color perception:Perceptual Scaling and chromatic visual evoked potentials". i-Perception, 9, 1-16.
• Nunez, V., Shapley, R.M. & Gordon, J. (2017) "Nonlinear dynamics of cortical responses to color in the human cVEP". Journal of Vision, 17 (11), 9-13. doi: 10.1167/17.11.9.
• Siper, P. M., Zemon, V.,  Gordon, J., George-Jones, J.,  Lurie, S.,  Zweifach, J.,  Tavassoli, T.,  Wang, A. T.,  Jamison, J.,  Buxbaum, J. D., & Kolevzon, A. (2016). "Rapid and Objective Assessment of Neural Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Transient Visual Evoked Potentials". PLoS ONE, 11, 1-15.  DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164422.
• Xing, D., Ouni, A., Chen, S., Sahmoud, H., Gordon, J. & Shapley R.M. (2015) "Brightness-Color Interactions in human early visual cortex". Journal of Neuroscience. 35 (5), 2226-2232. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3740-14.2015.
• Xing, D.1., Yeh, C.I., Gordon, J. & Shapley R.M. (2014) "Cortical brightness adaptation when darkness and brightness produce different dynamical states in the visual cortex". Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.111(3):1210-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1314690111. Epub 2014 Jan 7.
• Weinger, P.M. , Zemon, V., Soorya, L., and Gordon, J. (2014) "Low-contrast response deficits and increased neural noise in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder". Neuropsychologia. 63, 10-18. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.07.031
• Krinsky-McHale , S.J., Silverman, W., Gordon, J., Devenny, D.A., Oley, N. and Abramov, I. (2013) "Vison Deficits in Adults with Down Syndrome". Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. Online. doi:10.1111/jar.12062.
• Abramov, I., Gordon, J., Feldman, O. & Chavarga, A. (2012) "Sex & Vision I: Spatio-temporal Resolution". Biology of Sex Differences, DOI: 10.1186/2042-6410-3-20.
• Abramov, I., Gordon, J., Feldman, O. & Chavarga, A. (2012) "Sex and Vision II: Color Appearance of Monochromatic Lights". Biology of Sex Differences, DOI: 10.1186/2042-6410-3-21.
• Garcia-Quispe, L., Gordon, J., & Zemon, V. (2009) "Development of contrast mechanisms in humans: A VEP study". Optometry and Vision Science. 86, 708-716.
• Abramov, I., Gordon, J and Chan, H. (2009) "Color appearance: properties of the Uniform Appearance Diagram derived from hue and saturation scaling". Perception and Psychophysics, 71, 632-643.
• Abramov, I., and Gordon, J. (2008) "Color Vision Panel Tests: A Metric for Interpreting Numeric Analytic Indices". Optometry and Vision Science, 86, 146-152.
• Gordon, J. & Abramov, I. (2008) "Color Appearance: Maxwellian vs. Newtonian Views". Vision Research, 48, 1879-1883.
• Zemon, V., Tsai, J.C., Forbes, M., Al-Aswad, L.A., Chen, C.M., Gordon, J., Greenstein, V.C., Hu, G., Strugstad, E.C., Dhrami-Gavazi, E., &  Jindra, L.F. (2008) "Novel electrophysiological instrument for rapid and objective assessment of magnocellular deficits associated with glaucoma". Documenta Ophthalmologica, 117, 233-243..
• Abramov, I. & Gordon, J. (2006) "Development of color vision in infants". In R. Duckman (ed.) Visual Development, Diagnosis, and Treatment of the Pediatric Patient, 137-162. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Zemon, V. & Gordon, J. (2006) "Luminance Contrast Mechanisms in Humans: Visual Evoked Potentials and a Nonlinear Model". Vision Research. 46, 4163-4180.
• Gordon, J. & Shapley, R. (2006) "Brightness contrast inhibits color induction: Evidence for a new kind of color theory". Spatial Vision, 19, 133-146.
• Abramov, I. & Gordon, J. (2005) "Seeing unique hues". Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 22, 2143-2153.
• Williams, P.E., Mechler, F., Gordon, J., Shapley, R., & Hawken, M.J. (2004) "Entrainment to video displays in primary visual cortex of macaque and humans". Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 8278-8288.
• Gordon, J. (2004) "Measuring Red – or Yellow or Green or Blue". In M. Fehr & S. Wurmfeld (eds.) Seeing Red: On Nonobjective Painting and Color Theory, 164-186. Cologne: Salon Verlag.
• Scuello, M., Abramov, I, Gordon, J., & Weintraub, S. (2004) "Museum lighting: Why are some illuminants preferred?" Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 21, 306-311.
• Gordon, J. and Abramov, I. (2001) "Color vision". In E.B.Goldstein (ed.), The Blackwell Handbook of Perception, 92-127. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Hall, E.C., Gordon, J., Abel, L., Hainline, L., & Abramov, I. (2000) "Nystagmus waveforms in blindness". Visual Impairment Research. 2, 65-73.  
• Hall, E.C., Gordon, J., Hainline, L., Abramov, I., & Engber, K. (2000) "Childhood visual experience affects adult voluntary ocular motor control". Optometry and Vision Science, 77, 511-523.