How we go colour blind with age but don't even notice: Brains compensate as we lose the ability to distinguish different shades

The bad news is: Most of us are going colour blind as the years roll by.

The good news? We probably won’t ever notice – thanks to our brains working overtime.

Scientists have found that older people lose the ability to distinguish between colours as a part of the eye called the cone receptor becomes less capable of processing hues.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered we go colour blind with age but don't even notice

However, at the same time, other parts of our visual system work even harder to minimise the effect.

In the study at the University of Liverpool, experts looked at 185 people aged between 18 and 75 years with normal colour vision.

They found the appearance of colours to the volunteers  remained largely unaffected by known age-related changes to eyesight.

For instance, the ability to distinguish between small differences in shades is known to decrease, particularly for colours on the yellow-blue axis.

This became apparent when participants were tested looking at shades of green [on the yellow-blue axis] in daylight.

What appeared uniquely green to younger observers appeared more yellowish to the older viewers.

The study’s author, Dr Sophie Wuerger, concluded that certain neural pathways compensate  as we get older, so colour functions remain largely constant over time.

She said: ‘Colour vision remains fairly constant, despite the known age-related yellowing of the lens.

‘This suggests that the visual brain re-calibrates itself as we get older.’