Editing Complementary colors (section)

==Afterimages==
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2019}}
{{further|Afterimage#Negative afterimages}}

When one stares at a single color (red for example) for a sustained period of time (roughly thirty seconds to a minute), then looks at a white surface, an [[afterimage]] of the complementary color (in this case cyan) will appear. This is one of several [[Neural adaptation|aftereffect]]s studied in the [[psychology]] of [[visual perception]] which are generally ascribed to fatigue in specific parts of the visual system.

In the case above the [[photoreceptor cell|photoreceptor]]s for red light in the [[retina]] are fatigued, lessening their ability to send the information to the brain. When white light is viewed, the red portions of light incident upon the eye are not transmitted as efficiently as the other wavelengths (or colors), and the result is the illusion of viewing the complementary color since the image is now biased by loss of the color, in this case red.<!-- How does this inefficiency in viewing a specific color cause the complementary color to form? --> As the receptors are given time to rest, the illusion vanishes. In the case of looking at the white light, red light is still incident upon the eye (as well as blue and green), however since the receptors for other light colors are also being fatigued, the eye will reach an equilibrium.