Tetrachromats
Tetrachromacy is the condition of possessing four independent channels for conveying color information, or possessing four different types of cone cells in the eye. Organisms with tetrachromacy are called tetrachromats.
Put simply, most of us are Trichromats, we see everything as a mixture of the three primary colours due to the cones we have on our retinas. Some organisms (most birds and zebrafish amongst others) have different types of cones on their retinas that allow them to percieve colours the rest of us cannot. In practical terms they can tell the difference between two colours that for most of us would be identical and identify 100 million colours compared to a Trichromat who could only identify 1 million.
In humans the two-cone cell pigment gene is located on the X-chromosome. Some women have two different X-chromosomes meaning they may have been born as Full Tetrachromats.
I wonder how many of my friends are Tetrachromats?
Put simply, most of us are Trichromats, we see everything as a mixture of the three primary colours due to the cones we have on our retinas. Some organisms (most birds and zebrafish amongst others) have different types of cones on their retinas that allow them to percieve colours the rest of us cannot. In practical terms they can tell the difference between two colours that for most of us would be identical and identify 100 million colours compared to a Trichromat who could only identify 1 million.
In humans the two-cone cell pigment gene is located on the X-chromosome. Some women have two different X-chromosomes meaning they may have been born as Full Tetrachromats.
I wonder how many of my friends are Tetrachromats?