How many times have you wondered if the world you see is really how it appears? If the blue you perceive is the same that sees another person? It is not a trivial question: according to science, the brain does not show us reality as it is, but one of its interpretation useful for survival.
This is why some colors that seem real in reality do not exist, at least not in the way we think. The most striking case? The pink. A color that we meet every day – in nature, in fashion, in digital graphics – but which is not present in the visible spectrum of light. In other words: pink is not a real color, but an illusion created by our mind.
The rose does not appear in the visible spectrum: it is an “emptiness” that the brain fills between red and blue
If we pass a bundle of white light through an prism, the light is disappeared in its fundamental colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. It is the classic spectrum of the rainbow. But among these colors never appears pink, nor magenta. Why?
Because rose does not exist as a wavelength. There is no frequency of light that corresponds to pink. According to physique Dominik John, the brain creates rose when it perceives red and blue light together, but without a significant amount of green light. That “empty” space between red and blue is filled by the brain with an invented color: this is where the rose is born.
In scientific terms, pink is a perceptual average, not a physical data.
Perception and reality
This discovery leads us to distinguish two fundamental concepts: feeling and perception.
As the psychologist Pang explained, we do not see reality itself, but one of his interpretation filtered by our brain. And often this interpretation is more “practical” than accurate.
An example? The optical illusion of the chessboard with a cylinder that projects shadow: two identical boxes appear of a different color only because of the context. It is a useful error: the brain shows us relationships between objects, not individual colored points.
Our world view is limited
Our eyes are able to see only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. But there are many other forms of “light” that we do not perceive:
This means that each animal species lives in a different perceptual reality. And ours – as far as it seems complete – is only a small slice of the real world.
Despite these limits, the human being has learned to create new colors. It is no coincidence that NASA has recently cataloged 102 new shades never seen before.
If rose lives only in the brain, is it less real?
The fact that pink does not exist in the physical world does not make it less “real” for us. In philosophy we speak of Quatia, or the subjective aspects of experience. The philosopher Thomas Nagel wondered: “What do you try to be a bat?”. Only the bat can know, because only he lives that specific perceptual experience.
Likewise, pink is real in our conscience, even if it does not have a wavelength. This leads us to reflect on two types of reality:
Both are true, but in different ways. And pink helps us to understand how creative and limited our mind is at the same time.
As the brain builds the colors: from the retina to the visual cortex
According to a study published on The Neuroscientistthe perception of color was born from a multi -stadium process, which begins in the retina and reaches the deeper brain areas.
- The cones of the retina absorb the light and respond to three basic colors (red, green, blue).
- Opponent neurons compare signals to create chromatic contrasts.
- In the primary visual cortex (V1), neurons called Double-oponent generate the local contrast.
- “Glob” cells in the temporal cortex elaborate the shade (Hue).
- Finally, the Te area integrates this information in behavior and emotions.
The color, therefore, is not a simple optical data, but a complex construction that involves perception, memory and emotional reactions.
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