when in a dark room why can you see things in your peripheral vision but not when you look directly at it?

Question

when in a dark room why can you see things in your peripheral vision but not when you look directly at it?

In: 4

Answer 1

Rods and cones, my friend. Rods and cones.

Those are the cells that your eyes use to see.

Cones are very specialized to see color and they are very focused in the central area of your eye, facing forward.

Rods are scattered more widely around the edges of the eye, and contribute a lot to peripheral vision. They’re not very good at perceiving colors, but they’re excellent at gathering a lot of light .

Rods are basically your night and peripheral vision. This also explains why low-light vision loses all color perception.

Cones are you visual acuity.

So, it’s just the way the vision cells in your eyes are arranged and how they function differently.