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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey,

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bond. Here in school, you might

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Speaker 1: have learned the acronym roy G biv to remember the

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Speaker 1: colors of the rainbow. While the average human can see

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Speaker 1: a spectrum of color from red to violet, a rainbow

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Speaker 1: appears slightly different to dogs. Instead of gradually transitioning from

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Speaker 1: red to orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, a

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Speaker 1: dog's visible spectrum starts with a deep brown, transitioning into

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Speaker 1: a lighter brown, yellow, gray, light blue, and then dark blue.

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Speaker 1: But why is that? Humans are what's called trichromats. We

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Speaker 1: have three different types of cells called cones and our eyes,

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Speaker 1: and each type of cone is designed to distinguish a

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Speaker 1: specific wavelength of light. Combined, these three types of cones

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Speaker 1: allow you to distinguish up staggering million colors or more.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, dogs and most other mammal are

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Speaker 1: die chromats, which means they only have two types of cones.

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Speaker 1: This doesn't mean that they see the world in black

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Speaker 1: and white, only that they can distinguish fewer colors than

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Speaker 1: the average human. Don't feel too sorry for your canine companion, though,

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Speaker 1: Even with just two types of cones. They can see

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Speaker 1: somewhere around ten thousand different shades, and they can see

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Speaker 1: much better in dimmer light than you can. Dogs have

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Speaker 1: many more rods in their retinas than humans do. Rods

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Speaker 1: are another type of cell in the eyes, their light

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Speaker 1: receptors that are sensitive to changes in light and darkness

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Speaker 1: and to movement, but they don't perceive color. It's likely

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Speaker 1: that dogs evolved to have more rods than cones in

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Speaker 1: their eyes, since being able to detect a moving animal

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Speaker 1: in the dark was more useful when hunting for food.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to colors, doggy vision is very similar

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Speaker 1: to that of humans who have red green color blindness.

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Speaker 1: Alike humans with this condition, dogs can easily interpret colors

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Speaker 1: with shorter wavelengths blue, but may have trouble with colors

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Speaker 1: with longer wavelengths like red. They see in a rich

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Speaker 1: spectrum of color, but may mix up shades of red

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Speaker 1: and green, or those with red or green components like

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Speaker 1: purple or teal. Since dogs are unable to distinguish the

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Speaker 1: color red, they simply interpret it as a dark brown.

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Speaker 1: All yellow, green, or orange objects appear in various shades

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Speaker 1: of yellow or yellow, brown, purple, which consists of red

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Speaker 1: and blue, looks like pure blue to dogs because they

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Speaker 1: can't interpret the red component. The blue green hue of

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Speaker 1: oceans and other bodies of water likely appears to your

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Speaker 1: dog in various shades of gray, So keep your canines

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Speaker 1: color capabilities in mind the next time you're shopping for

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Speaker 1: the perfect toy for your best friend. Skip the bright reds,

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Speaker 1: which appear as muddy brown to your pooch, and stick

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Speaker 1: to colors like blue or yellow that your dog can

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Speaker 1: truly appreciate. Today's episode based on the article what colors

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Speaker 1: can Dog see on how stuff works dot com written

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Speaker 1: by Vambi Turner and brain Stuff is production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com,

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Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows