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Źródło: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision

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The women with superhuman vision

The women with superhuman vision

A tiny group of people can see ‘invisibleniewidzialny’ colours that no-one else can perceivepostrzegać, discovers David Robson. How do they do it?

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As Concetta Antico took her pupilsuczniowie to the park for an art lesson, she would often question them about the many shadesodcienie she saw flashing before her eyes. “I’d say, ‘Look at the light on the water – can you see the pink shimmeringmigoczący across that rock? Can you see the red on the edge of that leaf there?’” The students would all nodkiwać głową in agreementzgodnie, przytakując. It was only years later that she realisedzdała sobie sprawę they were just too polite to tell the truth: the colours she saw so vividlywyraziście were invisibleniewidoczny to them.

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Today, she knows that this is a symptomobjaw of a condition known asznany jako “tetrachromacytetrachromia”. Thanks todzięki a variationodmiana; wariant in a gene that influences the development of their retinasrozwój ich siatkówek, people like Antico can see colours invisible to most of us. Consider a pebble pathwayścieżka wysypana kamykami. What appears dullmatowy; ponury; mało wyrazisty grey to you or me shines like a jewellerjubiler’s display to Antico. “The little stones jump out atrzucać się w oczy me with oranges, yellows, greens, blues and pinks,” she says. “I’m kind of shockedzszokowany; zaskoczony when I realiseuświadamiać sobie what other people aren’t seeing.”

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Tetrachromats are rarerzadki enough, but Antico is particularly remarkableniezwykły; godny uwagi, since, as an artist, she is able to give us a rarerzadki view into that world. “Her artworkdzieło sztuki; praca artystyczna might tap intonawiązywać do; odwoływać się do; wykorzystywać a structurestruktura; układ that all of us can appreciate,” says Kimberly Jameson at the University of California, Irvine, who has studied Antico extensivelyszeroko; dogłębnie. It’s even possible that she might suggest ways for more people to see the same waypostrzegać tak samo.

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The question of whether we all see the same colours has a long history in philosophy and science. In the past, there seemed little reason to expect huge differences. We know that almost everyone has three types of “cone cells” in their retinasiatkówka that each respond to a different bandwidthzakres pasma of light. The colour of an object depends on the particular combination of those signals, but although the exact sensitivitywrażliwość may vary between people, overall one person’s colours should roughly match another person’s. The exceptions were thought to be colour-blinddaltonistyczny; cierpiący na daltonizm people, where one of the cones is faultywadliwy. With reduced sensitivitywrażliwość at certain wavelengths, they struggle to tell the differenceodróżniać between reds and greens, for instance. 

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In theoryw teorii, though, it could go the other waybyć na odwrót; działać odwrotnie: according to some estimatesszacunki; oceny, an extra cone would offer a hundred different variantswarianty; odmiany to each colour that humans normally see. We know that this happens in nature: zebrafinches and goldfish both have a fourth cone that seems to help them differentiaterozróżniać; odróżniać apparentlypozornie; rzekomo identical colours. About 20 years ago Gabriele Jordan at the University of Newcastle and John Mollon at the University of Cambridge proposedzaproponował; przedstawił a way that it might be possible in humans too.

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The cruxsedno of Jordan’s argument lay inpolegać na the fact that the gene for our red and green cone types lies on the X chromosomechromosom. Since women have two X chromosomes, they could potentially carry two different versions of the gene, each encoding for a cone that is sensitive to slightly different parts of the spectrumwidmo. In addition to the other two, unaffectedniezmieniony; nieuszkodzony cones, they would therefore have four in total – making them a “tetrachromattetrachromat”. For these reasons, it’s thought to be a condition exclusivewyłączny; zastrzeżony to women, though researchers can’t totally rule outwykluczać the possibility that men may somehow inheritdziedziczyć it too.

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Proving that these people actually see the world differently has involvedobejmował; wiązał się z a two-decade journeydwudziestoletnia droga; wieloletnie badania, however. Although the relevantistotny; odpowiedni combinationpołączenie; zestaw of genes does not seem to be especially rare – perhaps 12% of women might have four distinctodrębny; wyraźnie różny conesczopki – many of the people that Jordan tested just didn’t seem to show any differences in their perceptionpercepcja; postrzeganie. But by 2010, she had found a subjectosoba badana; badany who perfectly acted the partwypadła jak trzeba; doskonale wcieliła się w rolę of a tetrachromat. Jordan’s “acid testtest decydujący; próba ostateczna” involvedobejmował; wiązał się z coloured discs showing different mixtures of pigmentpigment, such as a green made of yellow and blue. The mixtures were too subtlesubtelny; ledwo dostrzegalny for most people to notice: almost all people would see the same shadeodcień of olive green, but each combinationpołączenie; zestaw should give outemitować; wysyłać a subtly different spectrumwidmo of light that would be perceptibledostrzegalny; zauważalny to someone with a fourth cone. Sure enough, Jordan’s subjectosoba badana; badany was able to differentiaterozróżniać between the different mixtures each time. “When you ask them to discriminaterozróżniać; odróżniać between the two mixtures, a tetrachromat can do it very quickly. They don’t hesitatewahać się,” says Jordan.

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But what do those colours actually look like? Unfortunately, Jordan’s much-prizedcenny; bardzo ceniony subject has not been availabledostępny for mediamedia interviews. But once the abilities of the woman “with super-human visionnadludzki wzrok” became known, many more potential tetrachromatspotencjalni tetrachromaci have come forwardzgłosić się; wystąpić z informacją who might be able to give us an insightwgląd; lepsze zrozumienie.

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One of those was Maureen Seaberg, a journalist and author in New York who took the geneticsgenetyka test after hearing Radiolab’s podcastpodcast on the subject. “I have always had polite disagreements with people about shadesodcienie of colours,” she says. When clothes shopping for instance, she often finds that apparently matching tops and skirts seem to be a different shadeinny odcień to her, clashinggryzący się, niedobrany horribly – even though no one else seems to notice it. Her sensitivitywrażliwość can sometimes be bafflingzagadkowy, trudny do zrozumienia to those around: when helping to restoreodnawiać, remontować a house, she once rejected 32 paint samplespróbki before settling ondecydowanie się na the right shadewłaściwy odcień. “The beigesbeże were too yellow and not blue enough, not cool enough; some of the almondsodcienie migdałowe were too orangey,” she says – distinctionsrozróżnienia, różnice that were much to the confusion of her building contractorwykonawca budowlany. Of course, that is only anecdotal evidencedowody anegdotyczne, relacje oparte na pojedynczych przypadkach, but it perhaps tells us a little about the way that apparently identical shadesodcienie could appear strikinglyuderzająco, wyraźnie different to a tetrachromattetrachromat, osoba mająca cztery typy czopków.

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Antico has a similar story. She says she has always known that her eyes saw the world differently to other people – a talent that was soon noticed by her family. “When I was a very little girl, my mother looked at me and said ‘You are going to be an artist and art instructor’.” Today, Antico has fulfilledspełniła that prediction, with her own gallery in San Diego, California, where she uses her enhancedulepszony; wzmocniony vision to create vibrantżywy; intensywny paintings bursting with colour. Consider the following painting of a rainbow eucalyptuseukaliptus. “The tubes of paint were flying. The yellows, the violets, the lime greens – I was ferociouslyzaciekle; bardzo intensywnie mixing on the palettepaleta trying to produce all the streams of colour in the bark,” says Antico. When compared to the real thing, the resulting canvaspłótno; obraz na płótnie suggests that Antico is seeing more than the average eye.

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It was when looking at one of those paintings one day that a customer suggested that Antico contact some researchers who work onpracować nad tetrachromacytetrachromacja. The geneticsgenetyka test came backwyszedł / okazał się positivedodatni; pozytywny, and she began collaboratingwspółpracując on a series of experimentseksperymenty; badania with Jameson and her colleagueswspółpracownicy, including Alissa Winkler at the University of Nevada, Reno.

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Jameson immediately suspectedpodejrzewała the Antico’s genes might also give her enhancedwzmocniony, ulepszony vision in dimsłaby, przyćmiony lighting. “If you look at her pictures of dawnświt, she paints a lot of colours and rendersoddaje, przedstawia them in very low lightingsłabe oświetlenie,” she says – conditions that normally reduce our vision to greyscaleskala szarości. That could just be creative licenceswoboda artystyczna, but Antico claims she is actually seeing the colours there in front of her. Sure enoughjak się okazało; rzeczywiście, Jameson’s experiments have shown that the luminanceluminancja; jasność świecenia of different colours is indeed alteredzmieniony, zmodyfikowany for Antico, making them pop outwyróżniać się, odcinać się in the half lightpółmrok.

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Enhancedzwiększony, ulepszony sensitivitywrażliwość, czułość is not always a blessingbłogosławieństwo, coś bardzo korzystnego, though. “The grocery store is a nightmare,” she says. “It’s like a trash pile of colour coming in at every angleze wszystkich stron, z każdej strony.” That enhancedzwiększony, ulepszony sensitivitywrażliwość, czułość might explain why she finds solaceukojenie, pocieszenie in plain white surfaces. “People find that extraordinaryniezwykły, wyjątkowy that white is my favourite colour, but it makes sense because it is so peaceful and restfulkojący, odprężający for my eyes. There is still a lot of colour in it, but it’s not hurting me.”

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Not all tetrachromatstetrachromaci have striking abilities. Jameson has found that Antico’s perceptionpercepcja; postrzeganie outstripsprzewyższa; góruje nad other tetrochromatstetrochromaci who have not trained artisticallyartystycznie. “Concetta is the perfect stormidealne połączenie czynników for tetrachromacytetrachromacja because she has a huge amount of perceptualpercepcyjny; związany z postrzeganiem learning experience by working with colour on a daily basis.” If that is confirmed with further research, Antico hopes that she might be able to develop a training system to help all tetrachromatic children realise their potentialw pełni wykorzystać swój potencjał.

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Antico’s ultimateostateczny, najwyższy ambitionsambicje, cele are even greater: to help us all see the world a little differently. Anecdotallyanegdotycznie, na podstawie pojedynczych obserwacji, she says that a few of her students have started to notice some of the extra shadesodcienie for themselvessamodzielnie, na własny rachunek. “It’s as if a curtain is being liftedjakby opadła zasłona; coś stało się nagle jasne.” Of course, without the genes, we can never achieve full tetrachromaticczterobarwny; tetrachromatyczny visionwidzenie, wzrok – but perhaps people like Antico can point outwskazać, zwrócić uwagę na some differences that are just perceptibledostrzegalny, zauważalny to our eyes, with trainingdzięki treningowi; przy odpowiednim ćwiczeniu.

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This is a particularly poignantporuszający; przejmujący issue for Antico. Thanks to the random drawlosowy wybór; losowanie of the genetic lotterygenetyczna loteria, the particular gene variantwariant; odmiana that gave rise todoprowadziło do; spowodowało her amazing vision has meant that her own daughter is colour blinddaltonista; mający daltonizm. Perhaps one day, further research could suggest new ways to help everyone – including her daughter – to make the most ofwykorzystać jak najlepiej their colour vision, however limited. “What if we tetrachromatstetrachromatyczki/tetrachromaci can show the way to colour for people who are less fortunateszczęśliwy; mający szczęście than us?” she says. “I want everyone to realise how beautiful the world is.”

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To read more about tetrachromacytetrachromacja research and Concetta Antico, visit: www.tenthousandthings.info and www.concettaantico.com.

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To read more about tetrachromacytetrachromacja researchbadania and Concetta AnticoConcetta Antico, visitodwiedzić; zajrzeć na: www.tenthousandthings.info and  www.concettaantico.com.

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