Purkinje effect

physiology

Also known as: Purkinje shift

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July 13, 2026

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The Purkinje effect, also known as the Purkinje shift, describes a change in the perceived brightness of colors in dim light. Specifically, as light intensity decreases, blue and green objects appear brighter, while red objects appear darker, compared to their appearance in brighter light. This phenomenon occurs because our eyes use different photoreceptor cells for vision at different light levels.1

At high light levels, color vision is primarily mediated by cone cells, which are sensitive to color and detail. In dim light, however, rod cells become more active. Rods are more sensitive to light but do not perceive color, and their spectral sensitivity peaks in the blue-green range. The Purkinje effect is the result of the transition from cone-dominated vision to rod-dominated vision as illumination levels drop. This shift in receptor activity leads to the observed changes in the relative brightness of different colors.21

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human eye
Spectral sensitivity curve
…photopic (day) vision, the so-called Purkinje shift. It has been suggested that the cones have a pigment that shows a maximum of absorption at 5550 angstroms, but the phenomena of colour vision demand that there be three types of cones, with three separate pigments having maximum absorption in the red,…
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…photopic (day) vision, the so-called Purkinje shift. It has been suggested that the cones have a pigment that shows a maximum of absorption at 5550 angstroms, but the phenomena of colour vision demand that there be three types of cones, with three separate pigments having maximum absorption in the red,…
Read More

Jan Evangelista Purkinje
…a phenomenon known as the Purkinje effect (as light intensity decreases, red objects are perceived to fade faster than blue objects of the same brightness). His studies of human vision attracted the attention of the German poet J.W. von Goethe, who befriended the Bohemian student and may have been instrumental…
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…a phenomenon known as the Purkinje effect (as light intensity decreases, red objects are perceived to fade faster than blue objects of the same brightness). His studies of human vision attracted the attention of the German poet J.W. von Goethe, who befriended the Bohemian student and may have been instrumental…
Read More

colour
Colour effects
…an effect known as the Purkinje shift for its discoverer, the Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje. At higher levels of illumination, there is a related shift in hues, called the Bezold-Brücke effect, such that most colours appear less red or green and more blue or yellow as the intensity of…
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…an effect known as the Purkinje shift for its discoverer, the Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje. At higher levels of illumination, there is a related shift in hues, called the Bezold-Brücke effect, such that most colours appear less red or green and more blue or yellow as the intensity of…
Read More