Andrew Huberman· PhD
the explanation that was getting kicked around for a while was a biological explanation which is that our ability to perceive Reds and greens and blues and yellows is based on our trichromacy the presence of these three different photo receptors short medium and long wavelength or you know green red so to speak that absorb short medium or long wavelength light and then the comparison there's this opponency um whereby our ability to see red is really contention on our ability to perceive green and so what like for a for someone who's red green color blind one in 80 males for instance they still see stuff out in the world that's red but they see as more orangish or brown ah okay dogs the same way right they're not colorblind true monochromats that don't see are very rare that is a one form AC I think it's called AC chromates yeah um don't quote me on that either but in any case the the idea was that if you're looking at something that's very enriched in Long wavelengths like orange red and you stare at it for long enough have you ever done that like American flag uh visual optical illusion when you stare at it then you look away from it and you see the opposite colors right and so one biological explanation is that the the Sun is setting and you're looking at this orange red thing when the sun is low in the sky you can actually look at it without um distressing your eyes right because right um as opposed to overhead when you should never stare at the Sun and then the moment that that reddish orange disappears The the biological explanation is that there's a a kind of perception of a green flash yeah because of the opponent seeing the switch to the other let's just say wavelength channel so to speak