Principle of Univariance

The principle of univariance states that one and the same visual receptor cell can be excited by different combinations of wavelength and intensity, so that the brain cannot know the color of a certain point of the retinal image. One individual photoreceptor type can therefore not differentiate between a change in wavelength and a change in intensity. Thus the wavelength information can be extracted only by comparing the responses across different types of receptors. The principle of univariance was first described by W.A.H. Rushton (p. 4P).

...
Wikipedia