Colors have been associated with different psychological and behavioral effects: red is linked to danger, green to tranquility, blue to relaxation, and yellow to the ability to capture attention. There is also the belief that certain colors can improve concentration, and we know that brands carefully choose the shades of their logos to convey specific messages. These ideas are present in everyday life, but the question is whether there is a real neuroscience behind these associations.
The answer is yes: there is indeed a neuroscience of color. However, the explanation goes beyond common sense. A surprising fact is that colors do not really exist in light. What exists are different wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is our nervous system that, by processing the signals received by the retina in the visible spectrum range, constructs the experience we call color.
The brain does not simply have a specific detector for each color. The human retina contains five types of specialized cells for light detection, which send signals to the brain so that it can process and interpret visual information. It is this complex process of neural interpretation that generates the perception of colors we experience.
