I have always perceived color slightly differently with each eye (things appear slightly bluer with one eye). People tell me I’m crazy. Is there any science to explain this?
(This presents all kinds of problems now that I have cataracts in one eye . . . especially since I’m an artist. When I’m working with color, it’s sort of like Beethoven composing while deaf.)
You are not crazy. I see a difference between eyes too. I do not know of any science on this, however.
I also see a difference. When I asked my optometrist about it, he said it’s not uncommon.
Which eye sees more blue - your dominant eye or the other one?
My right eye (dominant) sees warm/pink, while my left sees cool/blue. I think. I notice a difference but I can’t recall if it’s consistent day to day. I’ll make a journal!
I’ve noticed this as well, but usually only in a situation with florescent lights, like a lecture hall.
I’m not an expert on this, but at a guess one of your lenses may have become slightly more yellow than the other, which would change the perception of blue.
Previous thread about this:
I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter of age and the “yellowing” of the lens of ones (read my) eyes. I first noticed a slight color difference when I was in early elementary school. I’m nearly 50 now and I still have a very slight visible difference.
In my case I would say that one eye perceives an image as more “warm” than the other.
I’m one of you; and for a long time it worried me at well. Then I just accepted it as being one of my many weirdnesses. Left eye is warmer, right eye is cooler. With both eyes open, I see something in the middle.
For me, my non-dominant eye is just slightly cooler.
The difference has always existed, as far back as I can remember (I remember blinking my eyes alternately when looking at flowers, at a very early age). And of course I have no idea which eye is more “correct” than the other, but since I normally see out of both eyes, it’s somewhat of a moot point.
But now that I have cataracts in my right eye I have to close it when working with colors . . . so everything seems a bit bluer than normal. I’m curious to see how this changes after my right lens is replaced. And in a couple of years my left lens will be replaced as well, so for the first time in my life I may finally be able to see colors correctly.
I’ve always had this. I remember noticing it as a child. My left eye sees things more blue. Again, can’t help with why, though.
A longstanding, subtle difference in color perception is probably something you’re born with. It might be media related – plenty of people over the age of 50 have a “cataract,” which is to say a lens opacity, but don’t know it because it doesn’t decrease their acuity.
A sudden change in how one eye perceives color could be due to a problem. The “red cap desaturation” test, for example, is used to diagnose optic neuritis. Eyes with optic neuritis or optic atrophy often have red-green color deficiencies and may see red as a pale “pink” relative to the other, unaffected eye.
I definitely remember this occurring as a teenager, but I just tested myself now and I don’t notice a difference. Could be because of the fluorescent lighting in my office which turns everything a sickly yellow color regardless of its natural color.
When I was younger I tried to rationalize that it was because one eye had been closed for longer than the other, causing my pupils to let in unequal amounts of light compared to one another. Because when I first wake up in the morning, things appear to be more yellow than when I’m more awake (at which point they blue-ify). Particularly noticeable when turning on the bathroom light.
I notice this sometimes, but it’s hard to reproduce. One eye is definitely bluer and the other redder; since I can’t reproduce it, I can’t say which is which.
People do have different graduation in one eye and in the other, or astigmatism in one eye and not in the other, from a very young age (I don’t want to say “from birth” because IIRC the eyes of a baby are still developing). So we do know that the eyes of a person aren’t necessarily identical; the examples above are all about the lens, though.
What part of the eyes is used for color perception? Cone cells in the retina. There are three types of these cells, which see at different wavelengths - at different colors. If one eye gets more of the blue receptors than the other, the eye with more blue receptors will see more blue, because there are more receptors responding (if a person walks into a room, how many people turn to look at that person is a function of, among other things, how many people there are in the room - walking into an empty room doesn’t turn any heads).
Now, how do the two eyes end up getting slightly-different amounts of the three types of cones, and why are some people able to perceive the difference while others are not? I’d file that in the same folder as “how and why aren’t my hands exact mirror images of each other?”
Do people generally have an identical number of cones and rods in each eye, though? I mean, most people don’t see a difference.
what do you mean? are you saying your perception varies with the time of day?
Rods aren’t sensitive to color except under limited conditions. The ratio of the different types of cones in the eye seems to have little to no effect on color perception; some individuals have a 3:1 ratio of L:M or M:L, while others have a ratio closer to 1:1. Because the blue sensitive S cones are smaller in number, they are more sensitive to damage and loss of blue perception. This follows some disorders like diabetes, although I don’t know whether it can present unilaterally. Barring any trauma, I could guess that perception differences are due to unequal cataracts or perhaps macular pigment density differences.
Don’t know about what you’re quoting, but it can vary by light level.
Yes, but color perception depends on differences between the responses of the different cone types, not absolute amounts of response (and, actually, on a lot of other complex factors too). As thelurkinghorror points out, people can differ quite a lot in the numbers and ratios of different types of cone cells that they have (the red and the green ones, anyway) and, indeed, in the way they are distributed on the retina, without it seeming to have any effect on their color vision.
I thus think it is unlikely that this left/right eye difference has anything to do with cone distribution. My guess is that it arises from differences in the transparent media in the eye that the light has to pass through before reaching the retina: the lens, the cornea, or the vitreous or aqueous humor, or perhaps the macular pigment.
But, as I say, it is just a guess. I have never heard of any science directly on point.