Color blindness is a characteristic of vision that a person has from birth or as a result of some nervous or eye diseases. If the disease is congenital, it is not possible to cure it. Color blindness due to diseases can be observed in one eye or both at once. In the case of an acquired disease, when the underlying pathology is cured, a person's vision becomes normal and such a defect disappears.
It is thanks to such people that we can most clearly understand how color blind people see, and how much their perception of this world is distorted. Due to the peculiarities of genetics, as a rule, men suffer from congenital color blindness. Colorblind women are twenty times less common. By the way, it is worth noting that until recently, doctors were sure that such a disease did not become widespread among women. However, occasionally ladies lose the ability to distinguish colors. This happens with age, or as a result of a serious injury.
To figure out how color blind people see, you need to keep in mind that most of them do not distinguishonly one color - blue, green or red, but some do not see two colors at once (pair blindness) or do not recognize all colors at all (color blindness).
Problems in the work of color-sensitive receptors located in the main part of the retina, are the cause of inferior color perception. Special nerve cells (cones) play the role of receptors. There are three types of cones that affect how color blind people see. Each of these species contains a color-sensitive protein pigment, which is responsible for the perception of one primary color. People with congenital color blindness lack the process of producing these color-sensitive pigments (one, two, or all three at once).
To detect violations of color perception, polychromatic test charts are used, on which numbers or simple figures are drawn with multi-colored circles. With that anomaly, as color-blind people see, it is impossible for them to make out these numbers or figures. A person with normal vision can see the image immediately.
There is no medical treatment for congenital color blindness, and until recently there was no method to cope with the disease. In 2009, a team of American scientists attempted to solve the problem of color blindness with the help of genetic engineering. By introducing genes, the monkeys managed to solve the problem of color perception disorders and prove that it does not require a change in the nervous system in order to perceive new colors.
There are also some methods of changing color perception with the help of special lenses. Not so long ago, color-blind glasses with lilac-colored lenses were developed to correct color blindness. Thanks to glasses, green and red colors can be distinguished, which improves color vision for people with a common form of color blindness. Also, tinted, red-tinted contact lenses, which are used to pass some tests, but cannot be used for permanent wear, can significantly improve color perception.
