• Question: How does colour blindness occour in people?

    Asked by jannynishy11 to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 19 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by v1997.
    • Photo: Lena Ciric

      Lena Ciric answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Colour blindness is a sex-linked condition – the gene for colour blindness is on the X-chromosome so it is more common in men than women. The most common type is red/green colour blindness where sufferers can’t really distinguish between the two colours. The reason for this is because the cones in your retina, which are there to see colour, are faulty.

    • Photo: Sean Murphy

      Sean Murphy answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Color blindness is a condition where a person has a deficiency with color vision – this is mostly an inherited condition and there are certain colors a person cannot distinguished from another. If a person is inflicted with the most common Red/Green form of color blindness they have difficulty telling the difference between shades of red and green colors. This form represents 99% of color blindness. The other form of color deficiency is Blue/Yellow. This form of color blindness is not common and testing is difficult to obtain.

      Light coming into the eye and resting on the retina is how the human eye is able to see images. The retina contains many Cones and Rods. The cones are located in the central part of the retina; this is call the macula, and is good during daylight vision for viewing colors. The rods are what allow a person to have night vision, but are no use for seeing colors.

      People having normal color vision and cones see different colors (all) and any mixture of colors; this is achieved by cones utilizing light wavelengths, one of three; green, blue, and red.

      If one (or more) of the three cones does not function well, mild color deficiency can result. If even one of the cones stops functioning all together or isn’t present, then the color deficiency can be poor.

Comments