We All See Color Differently, But Our Brains Process Color the Same
The world around you is colorful, but it wouldn’t seem so shiny without your brain. In fact, it is your brain that treats information on the colors of sensitive sensors in colors, or photoreceptors, called cones, in your retinas, allowing you to perceive the nuances of your environment. But what is really going on in your brain when you see the colors of the world, and is it coherent between people?
More specifically, does your brain react differently to different shades? And does that react to the different shades you see in the same way as the brain of your friends, family and foreigners you meet in the street?
Seeking to solve these mysteries, a new study in JneurosciThe Journal of the Society for Neuroscience has shown that specific brain responses to specific colors are similar between individuals, which means that neuroscientists can compare your brain activity to that of others to predict what colors you can see at some point in time.
“We cannot say that a person’s red is alike the red of another person,” said Michael Bannert, study author and neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen, according to a press release. “But see that certain sensory aspects of a subjective experience are preserved through the brain of people is new.”
Find out more: The direction of colors
How we see the color
Of course, color plays an important role in the way we interact visually with the world, but so far, neuroimaging studies on the brain activity models involved in the treatment of colors have been relatively limited.
Aimed at studying the differences in the perception of different colors and in the perception of different colors between people, in particular, the authors of the study turned to imaging by functional magnetic resonance (IRM) to measure and predict the brain reactions linked to colors and the brightness between people for one of the first times.
To begin with, Bannert and Andreas Bartels – another study and neuroscientific author of the University of Tübingen – monitored the brain activity of a set of participants while they observed a series of colored screens in the light and high level brightness. The results revealed that brain activity in the visual treatment areas of the participants, including certain parts of their visual cortex, was different when they considered the screens of different colors and brightness, the distinct models of brain activity being similar to all participants when they saw a specific screen.
Based on these results, the study authors then compared the brain responses of the first set of participants in the brain responses of a second set of participants, concluding that the similarities between the two could be used to successfully predict the colors and the light that the second observed.
“We have predicted what color someone considers according to their brain activity,” added the authors in their study, “only using knowledge of the brain color responses from other observers”.
Find out more: How many colors do we really see?
Sharing shades?
While previous studies have exploited a person’s brain activity to predict the colors they might see at another time, this research breaks this mold, suggesting that it is possible to exploit the brain activity of other people to reach the same predictions. Thus, research shows that there are answers linked to the colors that brains have in common – a result that highlights the similarity and predictability of color perception between people.
The authors of the study suspect that this consistency is linked to a kind of functional or evolving process, providing an area for additional research. The differences in subjective treatment and perception of color are also available for a future study, because it is possible that a color may seem different from different people, despite the activation of the same brain activity models.
Nevertheless, this study always provides neuroscientists with a stronger sense of the functioning of the brain, distinguishing the colors that add depth to our world.
Find out more: Size and saturation of colors, a perceptual connection?
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