Tetrachromacy
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Tetrachromacy is the condition of possessing four independent channels for conveying color information, or possessing four different cones, one other than RGB. Organisms with tetrachromacy are called tetrachromats. For these organisms, the perceptual effect of any arbitrarily chosen light from its visible spectrum can be matched by a mixture of no more than four different pure spectral lights.
The normal explanation of tetrachromacy is that the organism's retina contains four types of higher-intensity light receptors (called cone cells in vertebrates as opposed to rod cells which are lower intensity light receptors) with different absorption spectra. This means the animal can see colors we cannot even imagine. In practice the number of such receptor types may be greater than four, since different types may be active at different light intensities.
Tetrachromacy has not yet been discovered in any mammals, though it is likely that it occurs in some birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, arachnids and insects. Humans and other Old World primates normally have three types of cone cells and are therefore trichromats (Animals with three different cones). However, at low light intensities the rod cells may contribute to color vision, giving a small region of tetrachromacy in the color space.[citation needed]
It has been suggested that women who are carriers for variant cone pigments may be born as full tetrachromats, having four different simultaneously functioning kinds of cones to pick up different colors.<ref>Jameson KA, Highnote SM, Wasserman LM. [http://www.klab.caltech.edu/cns186/papers/Jameson01.pdf "Richer color experience in observers with multiple photopigment opsin genes." Psychon Bull Rev. 2001 Jun;8(2):244-61. PMID 11495112.</ref> However, this has not been comfirmed by experiments yet. Variation in cone pigment genes is widespread in most human populations, but the most prevalent and pronounced tetrachromacy would derive from female carriers of major red-green pigment anomalies, usually classed as forms of "color blindness" (protanomaly or deuteranomaly). The biological basis for this phenomenon is X-inactivation.
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- Thompson, Evan (2000). "Comparative color vision: Quality space and visual ecology." In Steven Davis (Ed.), Color Perception: Philosophical, Psychological, Artistic and Computational Perspectives, pp. 163-186. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.yorku.ca/evant/ETVancouvercolour.pdf
- Holba, Á.; Lukács, B. "On tetrachromacy." http://www.rmki.kfki.hu/~lukacs/TETRACH.htm
- Tetrachromacy in female humans (student essay)
- Looking for Madam Tetrachromat By Glenn Zorpette. Red Herring magazine, 1 November 2000
- Ultraviolet vision
- The Human is a blocked tetrachromat A review of the spectral sensitivity of the human visual system. (Claims that the human lens is mostly responsible for blocking the violet frequencies)
| Color vision [Edit] |
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| Color vision | Color blindness |
| Monochromacy | Dichromacy | Trichromacy | Tetrachromacy | Pentachromacy |
