Table of contents:
- How do people who are color blind see the colors of an object?
- Can color blindness be cured, so that you can see the colors of the world again?
A person who is colorblind does not necessarily only see the world as black and white. Some people may not be able to distinguish between shades of purple and blue, or see yellow as looking like green, while others have trouble distinguishing between red and black. So, can people who are color blind be completely cured?
How do people who are color blind see the colors of an object?
Whenever the eye sees an object, such as a banana, light from the surrounding environment will be reflected onto the banana's surface and then captured by the retina at the back of the eye. The wavelength of light that the object reflects off determines what color you see, which is a yellow banana.
Well, the retinal layer has two kinds of cells to capture light, namely rods and cones. Stem cells are very sensitive to light, which is very useful for adapting in dim spaces, whereas cones have better visual accuracy and have photopigments that are useful for distinguishing colors.
Cone cells have 3 kinds of photopigments that are useful for distinguishing 3 basic colors, namely red, blue, and green. Colors other than the three basic colors are a combination of the three basic colors, such as yellow which is a combination of red and green.
So, what happens to the eyes of people who are color blind? Color blindness occurs due to limitation or loss of function of the cone cells. If red (protane) or green (defrost) photopigments don't work, you will have a hard time distinguishing between red and green shades. Red, orange, and yellow colors look greener and even brownish or black. You may also notice that greens and yellows appear redder, or have difficulty distinguishing between purples and blues.
In some people, all of the photopigments in the cone cells can become completely defunct and so they cannot see any color. The world truly looks black, white, and gray,
Can color blindness be cured, so that you can see the colors of the world again?
Color blindness is generally caused by genetic disorders that are inherited from parents. Reporting from Everyday Health, so far there is no treatment or medical procedure that makes color blindness fully heal. A group of researchers recently devised a gene therapy that has been shown to cure color blindness in monkeys that cannot distinguish between green and red. However, until now, gene therapy has not been formalized and has not been declared safe for treating color blindness in humans.
Color blindness is not dangerous. Most people who are color blind can adapt to their condition and show work productivity that is equivalent to people with normal eyesight, or even better.
A research team from the US Army found that colorblind people can see color camouflage better, while people with normal color vision can be fooled by it. In fact, this reduction in color vision can make them better able to distinguish the texture and brightness of an object.
Moreover, there are viewing aids in the form of glasses or special contact lenses to help patients with red-green color blindness, the most common type of color blindness. This tool does not make color blindness fully recover, but colors that were less clear can look more "lit up".
