Is the colour you see the same as what I see? It’s a question that has puzzled both philosophers and neuroscientists for decades, but has proved notoriously difficult to answer… Now, a study that recorded patterns of brain activity in 15 participants suggests that colours are represented and processed in the same way in the brains of different people.
The researchers found that in most cases they were able to predict which colour was being viewed by a participant in this second group, using the patterns of brain activity they had seen in the first group. They also found that different colours were processed by subtly different areas within the same region of the visual cortex, and that different brain cells responded more strongly to particular colours. These differences were consistent across participants.
The paper on Journal of Neuroscience (sadly not open access): https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2025/08/29/JNEUROSCI.2717-20.2025
My critique is… the researchers are based in Tubingen, Germany, and I assume most of their 15 participants are of European cultural heritage (cannot verify… no open access). I would love to see if they can replicate this in a more multi-cultured setting. Some Asian cultures have rather different verbiage for different colors, and I wonder whether that would bias ppl’s perception.
You might look into getting checked for cone-rod dystrophy. Seeing colors differently than my wife, but still passing a color blindness test is what led to the extra testing that led to my diagnosis.
Huh cool. Were you able to make changes to align better with others after the diagnosis, or is it just a relief to know?
There’s no change or cure. My color vision is going to slowly disappear, then I’ll slowly go blind. The timeline on that is anywhere from like a few months to 50 years, depending on which gene is causing it (I haven’t done that test yet). The fact that there hasn’t been a major change yet is a good sign though.
Good news is there’s a bunch of trials for drugs that can slow or stop it going on right now, and my opthalmologist happens to have a lot of experience with it.
Best of luck! I’ll keep my fingers crossed, I’ve been like this my whole life and I’m not noticing any degeneration. I’ll also bring it up at my next doctor’s appointment and see what he thinks.