Perception is a fickle thing. As good as our senses are at keeping us alive, they can often mislead and deceive us. Here’s a great example of that which you can try at home, featured in the new BBC Four series, Colour: The Spectrum of Science.
It’s all to do with our cone cells. Those “little guys” are one of the two photo-receptors within our eye’s retina, responsible for color vision. We have 3 types of these “little guys” sensitive to Blue, Red and Green color. By mixed usage of these 3 types of cone cells you get to see all the colors that you can.
When you get a set of cone cells overstimulated, they get tired and unresponsive leaving you temporarily with active cone cells that absorb only the opposite, complimentary colors. It’s like with the YoYo Effect, when you push something into one extreme it bounces back into the other. However, after a few seconds, the cones “recharge” and you’re able to perceive that color again.
Knowing how your senses can be manipulated will give you an edge to perceive the REAL reality of the world around you. That’s how you avoid being manipulated unintentionally by your senses, or sometimes intentionally by other people. But anyway, the illusion above is absolutely incredible without a doubt!
Source: http://www.iflscience.com;
