Impossible color

There are impossible chromatic colors that our brains can not properly process, they seem to be «forbidden» by color theory. It is difficult for a person to see red with a green tint and yellow with a blue tint.

The reasons of the phenomenon

This is a feature of the functioning of the human visual receptors. The red light, getting on the retina, stimulates cells that capture the red range light and we see red. The green light, getting on the retina, stimulates cells that capture the green range light and we see green. Our brain mixes the information from the receptors as a result of processing these two colors together and we see the brown. The same goes for blue with yellow.

Such illusions show us the other side of the established principle of complementary colors, when two colors of a certain pair are opposed to each other.

Is it possible to see impossible colors?

It is still possible to see the impossible colors. To do this, you need to prevent the brain from mixing two colors.

The scientists from Stanford University conducted the experiments with the help of special equipment in 1982, when one eye saw blue, the second — yellow. The special device made it possible to track the movement of the eyes and stabilize the position of the color fields accordingly. Such the stabilization of the image led to quite interesting effect. For example, some testee said that the image began to fall apart in some cases and the other testee saw a yellow with a blue tinge. It was the blurring of the boundary between the color fields that aroused the special interest of the scientists Hewitt Crane and Thomas Pyanantha. Usually when you mix these two colors the brain sees green, exactly the same turns with red and green and it turns brown.

This experiment scientific community was apprehended with hostility, but despite this, many people say that sometimes they really manage to see something unreal.

The experiment

Try and you. Carefully look at the two pluses in the center of each of the squares. One eye should focus on the yellow, the second is on the blue in this case. Some people can see the color «yellow-blue» in this image, allowing their eyes to cross so that both symbols are on top of each other. And yes, it turns out not at all and not always from the first time, but sometimes you can see the shades about the existence of which you previously did not guess.

Although such experiments remind us of tricks, they are nevertheless able to explain very important aspects of the view in general and in particular the mechanisms of perception. As studies of perception of «impossible» colors have shown, our brain has not so rigid installations as it was considered earlier.