renzy Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 Okay guys, I really need an answer to this question. So please, you human physiology/neurology experts lend me a hand. I'm just wondering why would staring at an orange shirt for about 40 seconds or so without blinking or moving your eye, and then immediately look to the white screen would result in seeing a blue one instead? (Yes, the screen was white, but after around 30 seconds of looking at the orange shirt, when we turned to look at the white screen, it appeared blue to most of us.) I really appreciate it if any of you can give me something to get started with, or tell me the answer, or give me a link of possible answers to the question, or heck, any link that might help me answer this question. Hope you guys can give me some insights, thanks!
Terroryst Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 Again? It might be because blue is the opposite color of orange (according to the color wheel) and some other stuff. I don't know.
Shield Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 Physiological illusions, such as the afterimages following bright lights, or adapting stimuli of excessively longer alternating patterns (contingent perceptual aftereffect), are presumed to be the effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type - brightness, tilt, color, movement, etc. The theory is that stimuli have individual dedicated neural paths in the early stages of visual processing, and that repetitive stimulation of only one or a few channels causes a physiological imbalance that alters perception. Wiki FTW. I think it's mostly this and some of what Nite and plotus said.
Nick Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 Uh, it's biological too. Light, especially bright light "depletes" some of the photoreceptor cells in your retina (they can no longer sustain the chemical reaction that "charges" the membrane's potential thus being electrically neutral even when stimulated), and they take a bit to regenerate. This is why shortly looking at the sun causes a black "spot" in your vision for a bit, and why walking from a bright room into a dimly lit room makes everything appear black for a few seconds. Your eyes "adjusting" in this manner is simply "regenerating" the nerves. (The actual effect is a bit more complicated, I use these terms lightly) So what happens when you look at an orange light source, especially a bright one, is that the "orange" nerve endings (red with a bit of green) get "depleted", so there's an abundance of working blue ones; therefore giving everything on that patch of the retina a blue-ish tint. That and, to some extent, what Shield said. Biology Class 9, didn't you pay attention?.. in b4 "nice googling/wiki'ing" wrote that off my head..
renzy Posted May 30, 2009 Author Report Posted May 30, 2009 Uh, it's biological too. Light, especially bright light "depletes" some of the photoreceptor cells in your retina (they can no longer sustain the chemical reaction that "charges" the membrane's potential thus being electrically neutral even when stimulated), and they take a bit to regenerate. This is why shortly looking at the sun causes a black "spot" in your vision for a bit, and why walking from a bright room into a dimly lit room makes everything appear black for a few seconds. Your eyes "adjusting" in this manner is simply "regenerating" the nerves. (The actual effect is a bit more complicated, I use these terms lightly) So what happens when you look at an orange light source, especially a bright one, is that the "orange" nerve endings (red with a bit of green) get "depleted", so there's an abundance of working blue ones; therefore giving everything on that patch of the retina a blue-ish tint. That and, to some extent, what Shield said. Biology Class 9, didn't you pay attention?.. in b4 "nice googling/wiki'ing" wrote that off my head.. Uhh, there's something I don't quite understand about what you're saying. As I understand, we see vision because light changes retinal from cis formation to trans formation, this activates the tranducin which in turn activate phosphodiesterase to break down cGMP, and cause hyperpolarization of neuron so that neurotramitter glutamate DO NOT get released? When this happen, the bipolar cells will integrate a signal and pass it to the ganglion cell down the optic nerve to the visual cortex. So uhh, how can the neurotransmitter in the cones get depleted if we were constantly looking at the orange shirt? xD Please clarify what you mean by orange nerve endings depleted. xD Also, thanks everyone for their help so far! xD *Edit* I read your post a couple more times, and I was just wondering, wouldn't stimulation of orange shirt make signals of orange more likely to be sent next time you see that color with the same wavelength of light? Based on my knowledge of how we see things described above? xD
Fyasko Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 Psychological point of view, check out the Opponent Process Theory. We learned this in Psychology, but over the summer I totally forgot what it was, so I looked it up and it looks like it has to do with what you're talking about. Opponent Process Theory
renzy Posted May 30, 2009 Author Report Posted May 30, 2009 OO it looks like that's the theory I need! Thanks! Now I gotta find the detailed molecular biology behind this theory. xD
rinrin Posted May 30, 2009 Report Posted May 30, 2009 From my lovely psychology notes, photoreceptors fire at a faster rate than baseline when you see one color, once that receptor fires at a lower rate, it is inhibited and signals our brain to see the complementary color. When color receptor is excited or inhibited, we get a rebound effect when we stare at a neutral color. The same color receptor will go into the opposite state causing to one perceive the complementary color. In your example, when you stare at the orange shirt, your color receptors fire past baseline firing (signaling orange). But when you stare at a neutral surface, all those cells go into their opposite states and fire less than baseline possibly because pigments are partly bleached out by prolonged exposure to the stimulus causing you to see an afterimage of blue cyan on the white screen. IDK IF THAT HELPED! I TOTALLY ERASED ALL EDUCATIONAL THINGS FROM MY BRAIN! My explanation seems too simple XD
renzy Posted May 30, 2009 Author Report Posted May 30, 2009 From my lovely psychology notes, photoreceptors fire at a faster rate than baseline when you see one color, once that receptor fires at a lower rate, it is inhibited and signals our brain to see the complementary color. When color receptor is excited or inhibited, we get a rebound effect when we stare at a neutral color. The same color receptor will go into the opposite state causing to one perceive the complementary color. In your example, when you stare at the orange shirt, your color receptors fire past baseline firing (signaling orange). But when you stare at a neutral surface, all those cells go into their opposite states and fire less than baseline possibly because pigments are partly bleached out by prolonged exposure to the stimulus causing you to see an afterimage of blue on the white screen. IDK IF THAT HELPED! I TOTALLY ERASED ALL EDUCATIONAL THINGS FROM MY BRAIN! My explanation seems too simple XD YAY! THANKS! IT HELPED LOTSS! THANK ALL OF U, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IS WELCOME, AS LONG AS IT'S BEFORE THURSDAY! =D
Terroryst Posted May 31, 2009 Report Posted May 31, 2009 YAY! THANKS! IT HELPED LOTSS! THANK ALL OF U, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IS WELCOME, AS LONG AS IT'S BEFORE THURSDAY! =D Males have penises. Well, and some women.
renzy Posted May 31, 2009 Author Report Posted May 31, 2009 Males have penises. Well, and some women. WOW REALLY? I DIDN'T KNOW MALES HAVE PENIS, IS THAT TRUE? ZOMG, NO I CAN'T, HOW CAN DIS BE POSSIBLE? AND SOME WOMEN HAVE PENIS TOO? R U ONE OF THEM? LOLOL HAHHAHA
Nick Posted May 31, 2009 Report Posted May 31, 2009 Uhh, there's something I don't quite understand about what you're saying. As I understand, we see vision because light changes retinal from cis formation to trans formation, this activates the tranducin which in turn activate phosphodiesterase to break down cGMP, and cause hyperpolarization of neuron so that neurotramitter glutamate DO NOT get released? When this happen, the bipolar cells will integrate a signal and pass it to the ganglion cell down the optic nerve to the visual cortex. So uhh, how can the neurotransmitter in the cones get depleted if we were constantly looking at the orange shirt? xD Please clarify what you mean by orange nerve endings depleted. xD Also, thanks everyone for their help so far! xD *Edit* I read your post a couple more times, and I was just wondering, wouldn't stimulation of orange shirt make signals of orange more likely to be sent next time you see that color with the same wavelength of light? Based on my knowledge of how we see things described above? xD Not sure, that's how my biology teacher explained it. We haven't done anything in-depth though.
