Nice but the most interesting is left out imho. It stops at the human retinas. But the way color then triggers perception would, I assume, also have a very high influence. For example we relate warm and cooler colors to turning forms relate the distribution of brightness and saturation to form, distance etc. Then the precieved forms and colors are related to feelings. So a better suitable colormap for medical images would require more to prevent misinterpretations. 'Pretty' is maybe also subjective but probably not arbitrary...

If I understood correctly they were optimizing for color difference which is a typical goal. I’m ready to be blown out of the water with an objective 10-“emotional slider axis” representation of color theory kind of like you describe.

Banger thanks I was just looking for a book about exactly this