How the Eye Sees Color

Color originates in light. Sunlight, as we perceive it, is colorless. In

reality, a rainbow is testimony to the fact that all the colors of the

spectrum are present in white light. As light goes from the source (the sun) to the object (the apple),and finally to the detector (the eye and brain) color is percieved.

1. All the invisible colors of sunlight shine on the apple.

2. The surface of a red apple absorbs all the colored light rays,

except for those corresponding to red, and reflects this color to the

human eye.

3. The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to

the brain.

The most technically accurate definition of color is:

"Color is the visual effect that is caused by the spectral composition

of the light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by objects."

Color is the most immediate visual sensation.Imagine describing what it is like to see colors to a person blind from birth.Infants can match colors to samples long before they learn the names of the colors.Early experiments on English – speaking adults who were shown a variety of colors revealed that their memory for colors was much better for the primary ones – red, green and blue than for the in-between ones, which are harder to describe.

Damage suffered to an area of the occipital lobe named V4 [ mid region ] impaired the ability to see colors.