Seeing hundreds of millions of colors or why women are better at matching clothes and paint

Submitted by HighMaintenanceMom on September 19, 2006 - 17:24.

Recent research has identified women, called tetrachromats, who can see four distinct ranges of color and therefore can distinguish much more subtle color differences than the average person with only three distinct ranges of color. It's estimated the eye can pick up about 100 different gradations of color using the standard red, green, and blue cones. The brain then combines those variations so the average person can distinguish about 1 million different hues.

"A true tetrachromat has another type of cone in between the red and green -- somewhere in the orange range -- and its 100 shades theoretically would allow her to see 100 million different colors.

That may be why Mrs. Hogan can look out the windows of her Mount Washington home and tell the relative depths and silting of the three rivers at the Point by discerning the subtle differences in their shades." (from Some women may see 100 million colors, thanks to their genes)

Only women have the potential for super color vision because the genes for the pigments in green and red cones lie on the X chromosome (only women have two X chromosomes). Two to three percent of the world's women may be tetrachromats with a fourth cone that lies in the middle of the standard red and green cones. Many of the rest of us could have a fourth cone that is closer to the other cones, which would give us slightly more colors than our husbands.

This may help explain why my husband doesn't always agree with my color choices...

For more information, see the following links. And please contact me if you can tell the depths and silting of rivers!

( categories: Science )