Are You Colorblind? 8% of Males Tested Positive

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In summary: I can get a life. In summary, the conversation discusses colorblindness, with the discovery that 8% of males are colorblind and a group of three male classmates being colorblind. The conversation also touches on the speaker's own unique experience with seeing slightly different colors in each eye, which could potentially be a genetic mosaicism. They also mention the possibility of unique colors that only one eye can see and the idea of conducting experiments to test this theory. The conversation also briefly touches on how lighting can affect the perception of color and the speaker's personal experience with this.

What is your vision type?

  • Normal

    Votes: 33 97.1%
  • Protanopia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Deuteranopia

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Tritanopia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    34
  • #1
I_am_learning
682
16
I just discovered my younger brother to be colorblind. And while researching, learned that up-to as much as 8% males are colorblind. Let's see, how many among us are so.
If you don't know if you are colorblind or not, you can google for some online tests, or use a basic test below.
reduced_test.jpg

Edit: A nice site for a better testing.
 
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  • #2
I have a class with 7 students, 4 girls, 3 guys. All 3 guys are colorblind. Oddly enough, they are all in the same lab group and one experiment required them to read off resistor color codes.

Yup, I had to tell the girls to basically give them the answer :P
 
  • #3
My father is colorblind - no idea what kind, though. I see slightly different colors in each eye (but each eye tests normal in the OP test). I've asked a few optometrists about it - they've never heard of such a thing :confused:.
 
  • #4
Nope, not color blind. But I have virtually no sense of smell which is just about as common and also more common among males. I could literally be covered in gasoline and not know it. It has made me more visually sensitive and I can literally picture 3D objects in my head in motion with diagram arrows and even translucent at times.
 
  • #5
Either males are colorblind, or females are making up stuff. Marzena has several blue t-shirts and she has a separate name for each blue.
 
  • #6
I had a colour test done when i started working in the lab at Black's Cameras. My colour vision is confirmed spot-on.

Pengwuino said:
I have a class with 7 students, 4 girls, 3 guys. All 3 guys are colorblind. Oddly enough, they are all in the same lab group and one experiment required them to read off resistor color codes.

Yup, I had to tell the girls to basically give them the answer :P

I'm a bit curious as to how this actually went down...

Pengy: "Ashford, this was in last night's homework, can you please read off the codes on these resistors?"
Ashford: "Um... no?"
Pengy: "Why not?"
Ashford: "I'm ... um ... colour blind?"
Pengy: ":sigh: OK, Beckett, can you please read off the codes on..."
Beckett: "I'm colour blind too."
Crompton: "I'm colour blind - and so's my wife."
Pengy: (aside) "Man. What're the odds??"

:biggrin:
 
  • #7
Borek said:
Either males are colorblind, or females are making up stuff. Marzena has several blue t-shirts and she has a separate name for each blue.
I have a black coat that my wife swears is blue.
 
  • #8
I am NOT colorblind, thank God, and am, apparently, as sensitive to shades of colors as any woman. I think about color blindness a lot because I work in colored pencil a lot of the time and can never be confident that any viewer is even seeing the same drawing I am making.
 
  • #9
lisab said:
I see slightly different colors in each eye (but each eye tests normal in the OP test). I've asked a few optometrists about it - they've never heard of such a thing :confused:.
I'm sorry, but I'm amazed by that! I assume you see a slightly different color depending on which eye you have open but you see one consistent color with both eyes looking at the object. Is that right?

And how different are the colors? Just slightly different shades of the same color or are they significantly different? And what colors are they?

If you were to look at something with one eye that appeared a different color to the other one, could you then find a second color that looked the same to the second eye when compared to the first color through the first eye? Or are there unique colors that only one eye can see and not the other?

I think we need to do some experiments with you! <sinister grin>
 
  • #10
lisab said:
My father is colorblind - no idea what kind, though. I see slightly different colors in each eye (but each eye tests normal in the OP test). I've asked a few optometrists about it - they've never heard of such a thing :confused:.

You could have a genetic mosaicism that comes above the water in the eye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(genetics [Broken])

You are not alone: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=(unilateral OR unilaterally) AND dichromatic (citation 1, 4, 5):smile:
 
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  • #11
Q_Goest said:
I'm sorry, but I'm amazed by that! I assume you see a slightly different color depending on which eye you have open but you see one consistent color with both eyes looking at the object. Is that right?

And how different are the colors? Just slightly different shades of the same color or are they significantly different? And what colors are they?

If you were to look at something with one eye that appeared a different color to the other one, could you then find a second color that looked the same to the second eye when compared to the first color through the first eye? Or are there unique colors that only one eye can see and not the other?

I think we need to do some experiments with you! <sinister grin>

:tongue2:

The differences are very slight but noticeable: I notice it in blue-green and yellow, both a bit more vivid in my right eye.

Monique said:
You could have a genetic mosaicism that comes above the water in the eye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(genetics [Broken])

You are not alone: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=(unilateral OR unilaterally) AND dichromatic (citation 1, 4, 5):smile:

That's just what my freshman biology prof said when I asked her about it! My dad is colorblind, so maybe for some reason more of the color cells in my left eye were formed using the X-chromosome he gave me...?

One of the optometrists I talked to said his patients often say things look brighter in one eye.
 
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  • #12
Borg said:
I have a black coat that my wife swears is blue.

It probably is blue. You're seeing it in your house with indoor lighting that makes it look black. But when you put it on and wear it outside, then she can see it clearly. You can't see it because you're wearing it.
Don't ask me why you can't see things you're wearing, that's just the way life is, especially when I need life to be that way so my explanation makes sense.
 
  • #13
Borek said:
Either males are colorblind, or females are making up stuff. Marzena has several blue t-shirts and she has a separate name for each blue.

You might consider having your wife tested for tetrachromacy.

It is the case of having 4 receptors. Very rare. Occurs mostly in women. Reports from these women describe exactly what you said: they see more shades - especially in the blue-green region - than others. Two shades that look identical to everyone else are quite obviously different to tetrachromats.
 
  • #14
I'm not colour bind but when the optician done the tests last time I managed to find numbers on the cards using the background shades.

He didn't know what was going on until he got me to draw in the letters on a piece of paper held over the card.
 
  • #15
lisab said:
That's just what my freshman biology prof said when I asked her about it! My dad is colorblind, so maybe for some reason more of the color cells in my left eye were formed using the X-chromosome he gave me...?

The genetic material in our cells can vary quite a bit, that's because of rapid divisions during development. The healthy gene could have been lost, mutated or silenced in the cells that formed the one eye. It's now more and more being accepted that it's not an uncommon process.
 
  • #16
other than when I was younger and my older sister would tease me and say "Oh no, did you say that the car was blue?! IT'S PURPLE, HE'S COLORBLIND!" no, I'm pretty sure I'm not colorblind, at least not according to that test
 
  • #17
Often people do not understand when I say I think something is black when they say it's obviously blue.
In lamp light I have great difficulty distinguishing blue and green, and also orange and pink.
But in daylight I have no trouble distinguishing them.

Looking at the test the conclusion is that I am normal.
Still, I feel colorblind!
 
  • #18
I like Serena said:
Often people do not understand when I say I think something is black when they say it's obviously blue.
In lamp light I have great difficulty distinguishing blue and green, and also orange and pink.
But in daylight I have no trouble distinguishing them.

Looking at the test the conclusion is that I am normal.
Still, I feel colorblind!

Your day vision (cones) detects colour; your night vision (rods) does not. So you're experiencing a normal input in that sense, but it's possibly exaggerated due to poor low-light vision.
 
  • #19
DaveC426913 said:
Your day vision (cones) detects colour; your night vision (rods) does not. So you're experiencing a normal input in that sense, but it's possibly exaggerated due to poor low-light vision.

Somewhere I have learned that in color vision there are 2 axes: yellow-blue and green-red.
Even though we have 3 types of receptors.
Apparently color blindness consists of either one or both of those axes.

For myself, I'm drawing the conclusion that my yellow-blue axis is weak, noticeably in poor lighting.
Especially since I have no trouble at all to distinguish red from green.
 
  • #20
I don't consider myself colour blind, but I'm not sure what the parameters are. Most of the time, I find it nearly impossible to discern between adjacent panels on my Pantone chart, but that sometimes means the difference of one drop of green or white or whatever in a litre of ink.
 
  • #21
I guess I'm the only one who clicked "Deuteranopia" in the poll. Then I realized that I did so because I thought the first image was the "normal" and I can't tell it apart from the top right image. So, I'm not sure if I am colorblind or not! :rofl:
 
  • #22
lisab said:
My father is colorblind - no idea what kind, though. I see slightly different colors in each eye (but each eye tests normal in the OP test). I've asked a few optometrists about it - they've never heard of such a thing :confused:.

Are you referring to the mixing up of similar colours like red and orange? I can't tell the difference between the two, and it's quite irritating. XD
 
  • #23
shaa said:
Are you referring to the mixing up of similar colours like red and orange? I can't tell the difference between the two, and it's quite irritating. XD

Sounds like you're a bit colorblind.

No, mine is more like bue-greens and yellows are more vivid in my right eye - but not by much.
 
  • #24
lisab said:
My father is colorblind - no idea what kind, though. I see slightly different colors in each eye (but each eye tests normal in the OP test). I've asked a few optometrists about it - they've never heard of such a thing :confused:.

I have the same thing. My father can't see blues that well. If I look at a white wall or paper my right eye has a red tint and the left has a blue tint. It's quite noticeable. 3D movies still need glasses though...
 
  • #25
Hepth said:
I have the same thing. My father can't see blues that well. If I look at a white wall or paper my right eye has a red tint and the left has a blue tint. It's quite noticeable.

That's very strange. I would have thought that a constant colour cast would fade in the mind's perception, as usual.
 
  • #27
DaveC426913 said:
You might consider having your wife tested for tetrachromacy.

It is the case of having 4 receptors. Very rare. Occurs mostly in women. Reports from these women describe exactly what you said: they see more shades - especially in the blue-green region - than others. Two shades that look identical to everyone else are quite obviously different to tetrachromats.

Do you think that will be the next "i-whatever" device flashy blinky thingy?

Now with infrared and ultraviolet capable display screens, for the rare tetrachromats out there.

I'd buy one. "Millions of colors" just isn't enough for me. :tongue2:
 
  • #28
DaveC426913 said:
That's very strange. I would have thought that a constant colour cast would fade in the mind's perception, as usual.

I don't notice it normally if both eyes are in use, but if i close each eye back and forth over and over i can see it.
 
  • #29
Hepth said:
I don't notice it normally if both eyes are in use, but if i close each eye back and forth over and over i can see it.

Right. That makes sense. Give the mind a chance to resensitize.
 
  • #30
OmCheeto said:
Now with infrared and ultraviolet capable display screens, for the rare tetrachromats out there.
Heh. The tetrachromats we've found so far don't see outside the normal range, they just have finer acuity within the range - mostly greens.
 

1. What does it mean to be colorblind?

Colorblindness, also known as color vision deficiency, is a condition where a person is unable to see certain colors or perceive them differently than others. This can be caused by genetic factors or damage to the eye.

2. How common is colorblindness?

Approximately 8% of males and 0.5% of females are colorblind. This means that out of every 100 people, 8 males and 0.5 females are likely to have some form of colorblindness.

3. What causes colorblindness?

Colorblindness is primarily caused by genetic factors, specifically mutations in the genes responsible for producing color-detecting proteins in the eye. It can also be caused by certain diseases, medications, or eye injuries.

4. Can colorblindness be treated?

Currently, there is no cure for colorblindness. However, some people with mild colorblindness may benefit from special lenses or glasses that enhance color perception. In some cases, gene therapy may also be a potential treatment option in the future.

5. How is colorblindness diagnosed?

A comprehensive eye exam, including a color vision test, is typically used to diagnose colorblindness. This may involve identifying numbers or patterns within a set of colored dots or plates. Genetic testing may also be used to confirm a diagnosis.

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