# The opposite of color-blindness **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218 "2003-08-10T17:02:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/21 "2003-08-12T14:51:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ryan \* > \*\*panache45 > Why not? Photon detection occurs at the molecular level, so detecting a different color would require a completely different chemical pathway. This isn’t something that can be easily fooled around with. \*\* That’s silly. You’re completely ignoring the most important part of vision in general, which is the highly complex and variable neurological pathways. Vision doesn’t take place in the eyes, it happens in the brain. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/22 "2003-08-12T15:08:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\*You might want to read the link I posted, the one dismissed by **homercles**. I don’t see him providing any cites for his assertions, by the way. \*\* D’oh! In fact that’s probably the study I was talking about - I seem to recognise a couple of the researchers’ names. **QED** , you are 100% right on this. Even if our eyes could detect UV or IR, we’d need a radical change in the brain for us to see in those “colours”. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/23 "2003-08-12T15:37:52Z")
Actually, color vision can be influenced even before light hits the retina - by differences in transparency of the cornea and lens. As a few have already noted, the retina has the capacity to detect near ultraviolet, but the cornea is generally opaque to UV. Just a slight difference in transparency could influence sensitivity to the short end of the spectrum. The French impressionist painter Monet was afflicted by cataracts late in life. The palette of his paintings shifted from blue-green to red-yellow. After he had surgery, but only on one eye, he painted the same scene first with one eye then the other. The color differences are startling. [I am trying to find a good image of this on the web. Google isn’t giving me anything.] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/24 "2003-08-12T17:26:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*That’s silly. You’re completely ignoring the most important part of vision in general, which is the highly complex and variable neurological pathways. Vision doesn’t take place in the eyes, it happens in the brain. \*\* It doesn’t matter how complex and variable the pathways are; the brain can’t process a detection event unless the detection event occurs. I don’t see what’s silly about that. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/25 "2003-08-12T18:06:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\*The French impressionist painter Monet was afflicted by cataracts late in life. The palette of his paintings shifted from blue-green to red-yellow. After he had surgery, but only on one eye, he painted the same scene first with one eye then the other. The color differences are startling. [I am trying to find a good image of this on the web. Google isn’t giving me anything.] \*\* [http://starklab.slu.edu/Monet.jpg](http://starklab.slu.edu/Monet.jpg) Before surgery (left), after surgery (right). from this page, which has a load of backup links on human UV vision: [http://starklab.slu.edu/humanUV.htm](http://starklab.slu.edu/humanUV.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/26 "2003-08-12T18:11:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ryan \* > \*\*It doesn’t matter how complex and variable the pathways are; the brain can’t process a detection event unless the detection event occurs. I don’t see what’s silly about that. \*\* Well, yes, but your post suggested that we couldn’t have any variance in color vision because of the way the photons are detected, which is wrong. The chemistry in the cone cells maybe be constant, but it is the brain which processes the input and allows us to actually see the colors. In fact, colors don’t exist outside of the brain. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/27 "2003-08-12T18:34:32Z")
Unbelievable **homercles** …I worked at Sherwin Williams all through highschool and beyond. I mixed paint (no computer) for nearly four years. There are many people who just don’t see the subtle differences in hues and shades. I have mixed thousands of different colors, that weren’t in our charts. Believe me when I say, “white is probably the hardest color to match.” and still some folks just do not see it. I think that color recognition is/can be learned. Growing up, we had an old Chevy pickup that was a mint green. Dad said it was blue. He still does this with colors that are not typical/standard. Aquamarine, turquoise, coral, etc. would be green, blue, and red. While he could see the difference if put next to OSHA colors, he would not really recognize or determine what/why they were different. If the colors were even less distinguishable like some off-whites, unless there was a large sample of each beside the other, I doubt he would ever notice, if then even. I have met many people over the years like this. Their ability may have been there but it was never exercised. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/28 "2003-08-12T20:09:53Z")
That reminds me of the time that a friend and I were arguing about a particular color. “It’s blue,” says I. “It’s green,” says he. “It’s blue!” “It’s green!” “Blue!” “Green!” Since this was on a computer display, we finally resolved the issue by using a handy color-picker program that matches the color being pointed to. Turns out we were both right. It was a shade of **cyan** with equal parts blue and green. BTW, I see that our friend **homercles** ’s membership status has changed. We won’t be seeing any cites from him. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218/29 "2003-08-12T20:30:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \* > \*\* BTW, I see that our friend **homercles** ’s membership status has changed. We won’t be seeing any cites from him. \*\* We rarely saw any valid cites from him before he was banned, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-color-blindness/194218.md?page=1)