Expert: Walter Hintz - 8/1/2008

Question
Sorry I don't mean to ask the same question again, but I have been told our cones and rod vary, which I remember I have told that all human share the same optical structure including rod and cones, and there is no way to find out whether we perceive the same colour or not.

-Does every human has different rod and cones?
-I thought It is impossible to test and prove whether does we have the same colour experience?
-Don't we have the same colour system in our body? since we are same species?
-Why the info I get here is different from rest of the expert?
-Is it true we have different rod and cones in our eye?

Is it being proven yet?


Answer
The photo receptors in all humans are the same. And the nerve impulses are all the same.  It is in the Occipital lobe of the brain where we interpret what we see.  Now there are abnormalities that can change the state of the photo receptors (color blindness)

There is now to tell whether the perception of color is the same in everybody

Yes members of the same species have the same color system

What info are you getting that is different?

Color perception has been studied and the facts about it are facts.  There are no mysteries.  Rods and cones are sensitive to different wave lengths and send impulses to the brain where they are interpreted based upon learning.  When you were small and looked at something red the cones that were sensitive to that end of the spectrum sent an impulse to the brain an dyour mother told you it was red. Did it look red to you as it does to me. There is no way to know. It makes no difference as long as we both give it the same name