Summary: Human brains share common activity patterns when viewing colors, suggesting universal neural color coding. Researchers compared the brain responses of one group of participants to predict the colors seen by another group and found high accuracy in decoding both hue and brightness.
This is the first demonstration that color decoding is possible using neural data from multiple individuals rather than just one. The results emphasize that, although subjective experiences may vary, the brain processes underlying color perception are remarkably consistent across individuals.
Key facts
- Common nerve codes: Specific patterns of brain activity represent colors common to all humans.
- Transcerebral decoding: Color perception can be predicted in new participants using brain activity data from others.
- Universal processing: Supports the idea that there are consistent mechanisms for color vision at the population level.
Source: SfN
Do Colors Trigger Unique Brain Responses? And Do We All See Colors the Same Way?
In a recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers Michael Bennert and Andreas Bartels from the University of Tübingen set out to explore two fascinating questions:
- Do different colors produce distinct patterns of brain activity?
- Do different people perceive and respond to those colors in similar ways?
To investigate this, the scientists recorded brain activity from a group of participants as they viewed a range of colored stimuli. Using advanced brain imaging techniques, they carefully examined how each participant’s brain responded to different hues and levels of brightness. The key aim was to identify whether the brain’s reaction to color followed a consistent, predictable pattern.
What made this study particularly innovative was the next step. Rather than just analyzing how each person’s brain reacted on its own, Bennert and Bartels took things further. They compared the brain responses of one group of people the “reference” group with the brain activity of a second, separate group. The idea was simple yet ambitious: could they predict what color someone was seeing just by comparing their brain activity to the patterns already observed in others? Remarkably, they could.
Their results showed that the brain responses to color were not only specific and measurable but also comparable across individuals. By using the color-evoked brain patterns from the first group, the researchers were able to accurately infer which colors the second group of participants had been shown even though they had never recorded those individuals’ responses to color before. The predictions also extended to brightness, not just hue.
This finding reveals something profound about how color is represented in the brain. It suggests that while our experiences of color may feel personal and subjective, they are built upon underlying neural structures that are broadly shared among people. That is, the brain seems to follow a common coding scheme for processing color one that is reliable enough to be recognized from person to person.
To put it another way, each person may see color slightly differently, shaped by individual biology, context, or perception but the brain’s way of organizing and responding to those colors is surprisingly consistent.
This stands in contrast to earlier research, where scientists were only able to decode color by looking at how a single individual’s brain responded to different hues, relying on prior recordings from that same person. The current study breaks new ground by showing that it’s possible to decode what someone sees by referencing patterns in other people’s brains.
“This doesn’t mean we all experience red or blue in exactly the same way,” says Bennert. “We can’t say that your red looks exactly like mine. But what’s new here is the discovery that some features of our color experiences such as how bright or what general hue we see are represented in a way that is preserved across different brains.”
This research not only deepens our understanding of color perception but also touches on bigger questions about consciousness, shared experience, and the structure of human perception. If our brains represent sensory information in ways that are more universal than individual, it opens the door to decoding other aspects of experience perhaps even emotions, memories, or imagination by observing how patterns emerge across many brains.
At its core, this study offers a powerful reminder: while our experiences may feel uniquely our own, the brain reveals something more collective. Beneath our individual perceptions lies a shared neural language one that binds us more closely than we might think.
Conclusion
This study highlights that while color perception is a deeply personal experience, the brain’s way of encoding color information follows a consistent pattern shared across different individuals. By demonstrating that it’s possible to predict what color a person is seeing based on brain responses from other people, Bennert and Bartels reveal a common neural code underlying our perception of color. This suggests that our brains, despite their uniqueness, use similar mechanisms to process and represent sensory information like color.
These findings not only advance our understanding of how the human brain interprets visual stimuli but also open exciting new avenues for exploring shared aspects of other subjective experiences. By uncovering these universal neural signatures, future research may one day decode more complex perceptions or emotions across individuals, bridging the gap between individual consciousness and collective neural coding. This work invites us to reconsider how much of our subjective world is truly unique and how much is built upon shared brain functions.
