Colour Fatigue

Yes! The human retina inside the eyeball has a light-sensitive layer of neurons on its surface?

The blind spot in the human eye corresponds with the point in the retina where the optic nerve exits and the central artery enters the eyeball.

Colour fatigue occurs when staring at a fixed arrangement of bright hues until the photosensitive chemicals in cone cells in the retina become depleted which results in incorrect information being sent to the brain. Accurate perception of colours returns after a minute or so. Complementary coloured after-images and other effects are often visible when staring steadily at a white surface.

Yes! The optic nerve is composed of the axons of ganglion cells and transmits visual information assembled within the retina towards the geniculate nucleus and the visual cortex.

An observer perceives bands of colour when visible light separates into its component wavelengths and the human eye distinguishes a series of distinct adjacent colours.

• The human eye and brain together translate light into colour.
• When rain disperses sunlight and forms a rainbow, an observer will typically distinguish red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet bands of colour.
• Although a rainbow contains electromagnetic waves with all possible wavelengths between red and violet, some ranges of wavelengths appear more intense to a human observer than others.

Visible light refers to the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that is perceived as colour by human observers. While the range of visible light is generally considered to be 400-700 nm, the exact range of colours perceptible can vary slightly between individuals.

• Visible light is one form of electromagnetic radiation. Other forms of electromagnetic radiation include radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Visible light ranges from approximately 400 nanometres (nm) for violet to 700 nm for red.
• A human observer perceives visible light as a combination of all the spectral colours between red and violet, as well as a vast range of other colours produced from the blending of different wavelengths in varying proportions.

Optical illusions and other visual anomalies are caused by the way the human visual system processes information.

• Physical illusions: Physical illusions result from the limitations and assumptions of the human visual system when interpreting the external world.
• Physiological illusions: Physiological illusions are often connected with the different attributes of visual perception and occur when visual stimuli are beyond our brain’s processing ability.
• Cognitive illusions: Cognitive illusions result from the brain’s inability to correctly interpret visual information, leading to uncertainties or errors in perception.

The visible spectrum is the range of wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that correspond with all the different colours we see in the world.

• As light travels through the air it is invisible to our eyes.
• Human beings don’t see wavelengths of light, but they do see the spectral colours that correspond with each wavelength and colours produced when different wavelengths are combined.
• The visible spectrum includes all the spectral colours between red and violet and each is produced by a single wavelength.
• The visible spectrum is often divided into named colours, though any division of this kind is somewhat arbitrary.
• Traditional colours referred to in English include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.