Can some people distinguish colors the rest of us cannot?
Most human color vision draws on three kinds of cone cells in the retina. Some people may have an additional receptor variant, but that alone does not demonstrate richer color discrimination. Explore how a researcher could test whether an extra signal becomes an ability a person can use.
Questions you could explore
- What test could show an extra dimension of color discrimination?
- Why might an additional receptor type be insufficient on its own?
Start reading
- Journal of Vision; University of California, Irvine hosted copyThe dimensionality of color vision in carriers of anomalous trichromacy
Investigates whether people with an additional cone-pigment type can distinguish colors that ordinary three-cone vision cannot.
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