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Donders Wonders Summer Series
As many of our readers are enjoying a well-deserved summer break, Donders Wonders writers will also be taking a short holiday pause. Instead of bringing you a new blog this week, we would like to shine a spotlight on another wonderful initiative: BrainHelpDesk. Curious about the brain? BrainHelpDesk connects your questions with neuroscience experts who provide clear, accessible, and scientifically grounded answers.
Short answer
The colours we see are determined by the light-sensitive cells within the eye, but also by our brain. One eye is not like the next. Furthermore, there are large discrepancies between the brains of each individual, not to mention that names for colours are a learned naming system, and certainly not taught in the same way for everyone. This can therefore create some large differences of opinion about the colour of a certain object; ‘what a pretty, blue vase’, ‘what are you talking about, that vase isn’t blue, it’s green!’. Sound familiar?
Longer answer
Want to know more? Visit BrainHelpDesk.nl for the full explanation by Eelke Spaak and Rob van Lier.
Do colours appear the same to everyone?
How is it that some people see an object as blue, while others say that same object is green?
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