: How can our brain create a colored image when we look at a plain canvas after staring for a few seconds at an inverted image?

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: How can our brain create a colored image when we look at a plain canvas after staring for a few seconds at an inverted image?

In: Biology

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Inside of our eyes, there are cells called “cones” which detect color. Inside of them there are different kinds of “pigments” which are molecules which change shape when exposed to light. In our eyes, we have cones with pigments sensitive to red light, blue light, and green light. If all three are activated, it means we’re looking at something white.

These work pretty well, but after a while, the pigments get “tired”. So, for example if you look at a green thing for long enough, the green pigments get tired, so even if you look at something white, your brain only gets signals from the red and blue cones. This is interpreted as magenta. The same is the case for other color pairs.