<P> Color sensitivity improves steadily over the first year of life for humans due to strengthening of the cones of the eyes . Like adults, infants have chromatic discrimination using three photoreceptor types: long -, mid - and short - wavelength cones . These cones recombine in the precortical visual processing to form a luminance channel and two chromatic channels that help an infant to see color and brightness . The particular pathway used for color discrimination is the parvocellular pathway . There is a general debate among researchers with regards to the exact age that infants can detect different colors / chromatic stimuli due to important color factors such as brightness / luminance, saturation, and hue . Regardless of the exact timeline for when infants start to see particular colors, it is understood among researcher that infants' color sensitivity improves with age . </P> <P> It is generally accepted across all current research that infants prefer high contrast and bold colors at their earlier stages of infancy, rather than saturated colors . One study found that newborn infants looked longer at checkered patterns of white and colored stimuli (including red, green, yellow) than they did at a uniform white color . However, infants failed to discriminate blue from white checkered patterns . Another study--recording the fixation time of infants to blue, green, yellow, red, and gray at two difference luminance levels--found that infants and adults differed in their color preference . Newborns and one month did not show any preference among the colored stimuli . It was found that three - month - old infants preferred the longer wavelength (red and yellow) to the short - wavelength (blue and green) stimuli, while adults had the opposite . However, both adults and infants preferred colored stimuli over non-colored stimuli . According this study, it was suggest that infants had a general preference for colored stimuli over non-colored stimuli at birth; however, infants were not able to distinguish between the different colored stimuli until after three months of age . </P> <P> Research into the development of color vision using infant monkeys indicates that color experience is critical for normal vision development . Infant monkeys were placed in a room with monochromatic lighting limiting their access to a normal spectrum of colors for a one - month period . After a one - year period, the monkey's ability to distinguish colors was poorer than that of normal monkey exposed to a full spectrum of colors . Although this result directly pertains to infant monkeys and not humans, they strongly suggest that visual experience with color is critical for proper, healthy vision development in humans as well . </P> <P> The threshold for light sensitivity is much higher in infants compared to adults . From birth, the pupils of an infant remain constricted to limit the amount of entering light . In regards to pupil dimensions, newborn's pupil grow from approximately 2.2 mm to an adult length of 3.3 mm . A one - month - old infant can detect light thresholds only when it is approximately 50 times greater than that of an adult . By two months, the threshold decreases measurably to about ten times greater than that of an adult . The increase in sensitivity is the result of lengthening of the photoreceptors and further development of the retina . Therefore, postnatal maturation of the retinal structures has led to strong light adaptations for infants . </P>

When can a new born start to see