Color blindness is an eye disease, it occurs when there is a problem with the pigments in certain nerve cells of the eye that perceive color. This is due to the lack or malfunction of one or more than one type of cone.
One of the components of the eye is the retina, in this part of the eye are the only cells capable of capturing color and light, they are called rods and cones.
There are three types of cones, each of which can capture the wavelengths equivalent to red, blue and green, thanks to its pigment content through the different intensities captured by the three types of cones, it is possible to distinguish all the colors that They are part of the visible light spectrum.
Causes of color blindness: This alteration is inherited from parents to children; It is a sex-linked inheritance disorder, that is, the affected gene is found on one of the sex chromosomes.
Among the types of color blindness we have:
- Achromatopsia: People with this disease have blurred vision, increased sensitivity to light, involuntary eye movements and low visual acuity. It is the most serious case of the individual who suffers from it because he only appreciates differences in the gray scale.
- Dichromatism: it is the lack of cones responsible for capturing blue tones; in this case, individuals will frequently confuse the colors blue and yellow.
- Anomalous trichromatism: It occurs when the person presents the three types of cones, but there is some deficiency in them that prevents a completely normal functioning.
Depending on their characteristics, we speak of:
Pronatopy if the color red is not perceived and protanomaly in case of poor vision of this color.
We speak of deuteranopia if we do not perceive the green color and deuteranomaly in case of poor vision of this color.
We speak of tritanopia if we do not perceive blue and tritanomalia in case of poor vision of this color.
A person can distinguish the colors red, yellow and green, for example the colors of a traffic light. The anomaly occurs when they have to differentiate the different shades of green in a forest.
There is currently no treatment for this disorder. However, there are certain color filters that can help people with color blindness to better distinguish colors in very specific cases.
