![]() Purple is an additive mix between what we see as red light and blue light. Purple is the color at the very shortest wavelength we can see. Thus we can distinguish red from redder by the mixture of green. Note that it is logical that this is not the case on the right (longer wavelength) side of the graph, because there red is accompanied by green closely. So luckily the brain is not freaking out, but the receptors are just a bit strange, probably with the goal to distinguish blue from more blue (from a functional view of 'evolution'). That would explain the little bit purple-ish blue we see at 400 nm! The L-receptor (associated with red) activation is not a bell-curve over the linear wavelength axis (as one would expect). ![]() ![]() You can see curve of red going up towards the short end of the wavelength axis. It seems that the L-receptor is actually more active at the very shortest end of wavelengths than it is for just longer than what we can see as visible light. Visual pigments of rods and cones in a human retina. Relevant reference: Bowmaker, J.K., & Dartnall, H.J.A. These are results from Bowmaker & Dartnall (1980). But this image seems to explain everything about my question in one single hit: I have a strong reason to believe I have found the correct answer to my own question, you may correct me if I'm wrong. The line of purples may further help to understand what purple/magenta/violet really is. This confusion originates from the RGB-system (and other sources) that assume blue as being a primary color, whereas violet would perhaps be more accurate! Further details can be found in the accepted answer. So then the "blue-est blue" is actually violet, not blue. That means that the color blue contains also a bit activation from the M- and L-cones (green and red). UPDATE: Pure activation of the S-cone (blue) may actually give violet instead of blue. Shouldn't both purple colors actually be different colors (thus we would have a new different color for that)? I don't see how our brain can possibly perceive this as being the same color.
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