Octarine

[bloodyrosemccoy]

You know you’re a serious science fiction writer when you find yourself wondering how to look up just what trace impurities in a gemstone would give it an ultraviolet color—so it’d appear colorless to us but be brilliantly shaded to some other species with a different visible spectrum.

Yes, dudes, I take this stuff seriously.

Granted, this may stem from when I was a kid and I would try my damndest to imagine completely new colors. I don’t think it ever quite worked, but I sure did work at it. But it turns out it’s not for lack of wiring, so there’s still hope!

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Really, I have no idea what it would be like not to see that way.

It doesn't come up very often, but like in the article mentioned later, I can often see depth of water that other people can't, and I'll often spot trails in greenery that other people miss.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wonder how subtle tetrachromatism can be, and how unsubtle that test is. I have the other markers - colorblind people in my close family - and I've always noticed that I can see subtle gradations in color that other people can't. (I used to work in a print shop, so it came up. A lot.) That article talks about difference in the wavelength sensitivities of the fourth cone as the defining factor. I can test this!
Eeeeenteresting.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

No color blindness in my family, but both sides have a high incidence of dysXias ( I'm dyslexic, dyscalculic, and dysgraphic ).

I wonder if it's related?

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I am also curious ... last I checked, you were a dude, and yet the articles all figure it for an X-chromosome factor. Perhaps you are EVEN MORE MUTANT THAN HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED ALREADY?

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Lord only knows.

I heard "What are you, some kind of mutant?" a lot when I was growing up.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*points* SHUN THE WEIRDO! SHUUUUUN!

Seriously, that's cool. Bet you could make a few bucks offering to get your head/DNA/whatever scanned.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I've had an MRI of my brain, there was a pituitary tumor scare a few years back.

Actually, I'm due for another MRI, but no job = no insurance, and I don't have the several grand on hand to drop on one.

They didn't give me a copy of my results, when people say "What kind of sick mind would say that?" I wanted to offer graphic proof.
Bastids.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

A recessive trait carried on the X chromosome is more likely to show up in men, because we only have one.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that's because you only start with one X.

Women start with two, and each cell randomly deletes one or the other redundant X chromosome. From what I'm gathering, the tetrachromatic cone is a mutant version of a normal red cone--so tetrachromats would start out with one "normal cone" X and one "mutant cone" X. Since each cell is random it should be about a 50-50 split in the eyes between cells that use the mutant cone and those that use the normal cone.

With XY, you've either got the normal red cone or the mutant red cone, but no chance of getting both.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see what you mean. It depends on being heterozygous (so really, they're both dominant). Eeenteresting...

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, it would have to be more than just a different cone, wouldn't it? Some of the wiring must be different too. Otherwise both different kinds of cones would be interpreted as the same color by the brain, despite detecting somewhat different wavelength ranges. Unless the brain can pick up on the pattern when they don't quite match...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, human tetrachromacy is still disappointingly situated along the visible spectrum. I had expected the wiring to be a lot more complicated than researchers are finding, though--that link in my original post talks about how apparently we (or, mice, at least) have the neurological processors but lack the detectors--like the colorblind guy who still experienced color sensations due to synesthesia.

I honestly would've expected it to be more complex than that.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

Visual wiring is actually amazingly simple, especially for what it is. I do research on the color perception of eyeless cnidarians, even, and it's very evident that even at that level they can sense the difference between colors.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

The research I am doing on this seems to indicate that the brain is actually picking up on the difference between the responses of the two (the normal red or green and the red/green). I wonder very much how this changes the perception of someone like biomekanic, who should, I think, only have the one. As he can't then be seeing the difference, what is he seeing?

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. ....the neuroscientist would like to karyotype you and test your brains. She will restrain herself.