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Does eye color affect a person's ability to identify color in low light?
Question Date: 2014-09-04
Answer 1:

No, it does not because the ability to identify color is handled by the retinal cones lining the inner surface of the eye. The part of the eye responsible for eye color is the iris. The iris is a muscle that is responsible for changing the size of the pupil to adapt to different levels of light. The iris is “pigmented” (has color) and therefore blocks light. This funnels the light into the pupil which will send it to retinal cells for processing by the brain. The color of the iris has no effect on how the light is processed by the retinal cells though it may affect the chance of eye disease.


Answer 2:

Eye color should not have any effect on vision. The reason for the difference in color is that darker colors provide more protection from sun damage, in the same way a tan helps prevent sunburn. So, the short answer is no, eye color does not affect ability to see color in low light.



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