Our aim is to present an interpretable algorithm for enhancing low-illuminance color image based on the principle of stochastic resonance and the fundamental biophysical process of human brain perceiving object color. To this end, the phenomenon of stochastic resonance in a conductance-based integrate-and-fire neuronal network is first explored, with the effect of firing threshold, synaptic weight and the population size on the signal-to-noise ratio revealed, and the firing threshold is recognized as the key parameter for the resonance effects. And then, a color image enhancement algorithm, where the peak signal-to-noise ratio and the natural image quality evaluator are adopted as quantifying indexes, is developed by combining the stochastic spiking neuronal network and the involved biophysical process relating to visual perception. Note that the enhanced image is aperiodic, thus in order to optimize the performance of the algorithm, an illuminance distribution based threshold strategy is given by us for the first time. The numerical tests show that the algorithm has good enhancement performance and stability. We wish this algorithm could be applied to relevant signal processing fields such as military detection and medical image preprocessing.