第1556期:Do we all see the same colour?

Have you ever wondered if you see the same colours as other people? Most people know what blue is when they see it.  It’s the colour of sea, sky and sapphires. They see the colour and call it ‘blue’ because they were taught the word and associated it with what they saw. But how do you know what you see as blue isn’t someone else’s red, and vice versa?

你有没有想过你是否看到和其他人一样的颜色？大多数人一看到蓝色就知道它是什么。它是大海、天空和蓝宝石的颜色。他们看到颜色并将其称为“蓝色”，因为他们被教导了这个词并将其与他们所看到的相关联。但是你怎么知道你看到的蓝色不是别人的红色，反之亦然？

The ability to perceive different colours is down to receptors in our eyes known as cones. Light waves hit these receptors and they react depending on which colour the light is, sending signals to the brain. The brain then decodes these signals to determine which colour light the eyes are receiving.

感知不同颜色的能力取决于我们眼睛中被称为视锥细胞的受体。光波撞击这些受体，它们会根据光的颜色做出反应，向大脑发送信号。然后大脑对这些信号进行解码，以确定眼睛正在接收哪种颜色的光。

Some people’s receptors are more developed than others. People with weaker receptors usually have colour blindness. The inability of the receptor to interpret the light waves correctly means that some people cannot distinguish between different shades of a colour.

有些人的受体比其他人更发达。受体较弱的人通常患有色盲。受体无法正确解释光波意味着有些人无法区分颜色的不同深浅。

Those with more enhanced receptors can see more shades of one colour, which is the first way in which people may see colours differently from each other. We sometimes hear people having an argument about whether something is dark blue or black. It might be because one person has stronger receptors to interpret the light than another.

那些具有更多增强受体的人可以看到一种颜色的更多阴影，这是人们可能看到彼此不同的颜色的第一种方式。我们有时会听到人们争论某物是深蓝色还是黑色。这可能是因为一个人比另一个人有更强的感受器来解释光线。

In the past, most scientists would argue that everyone saw colours in the same way. However, research was conducted on monkeys, in which they were injected with a virus affecting their receptors. This enabled them to distinguish more colours than usual and brought an intriguing revelation. Normally monkeys can only see in blue and green, but the virus allowed monkeys to see red.

过去，大多数科学家会争辩说，每个人看到颜色的方式都是一样的。然而，研究是在猴子身上进行的，它们被注射了一种影响其受体的病毒。这使他们能够分辨出比平时更多的颜色，并带来了一个有趣的启示。通常猴子只能看到蓝色和绿色，但病毒让猴子看到红色。

The neurons in their brains spontaneously adapted to be able to understand new colours, which might mean the neurons in our brains are not hardwired to automatically understand which colour is which. This implies that our brains and neurons may adapt depending on our stimulus during the developmental phase. Colour could be a very personal experience, unique to everyone.

他们大脑中的神经元自发地适应能够理解新的颜色，这可能意味着我们大脑中的神经元并没有硬连线来自动理解哪种颜色是哪种颜色。这意味着我们的大脑和神经元可能会根据我们在发育阶段的刺激进行适应。颜色可能是一种非常个人化的体验，对每个人来说都是独一无二的。

So, the next time you talk about your favourite colour, just remember if yours is blue and your friend says red, you might actually be thinking about the same colour. What if everyone in the world has the same favourite colour, but just calls it different names?

所以，下次当你谈论你最喜欢的颜色时，只要记住如果你的颜色是蓝色而你的朋友说是红色，那么你可能实际上在考虑相同的颜色。如果世界上每个人都喜欢相同的颜色，只是叫它不同的名字怎么办？

词汇表

associate 与……联系起来
perceive 看待，认知
to be down to 是……责任，取决于
receptor 感受器
cone 晶状体，锥形体
light wave 光波
decode 解码
determine 决定
colour blindness 先天性色觉障碍，色盲
inability 无能力
enhanced 增强的，提高的
interpret 理解，阐释
intriguing 引人入胜的
revelation 被揭露的真相
neuron 神经细胞
spontaneously 自发地
hard-wired 本能的
imply 暗示，意味
stimulus 刺激
developmental 成长的，发展的