A world with more colors and experiences
Recently, the BBC conducted an investigation on tetrachromatism. He spoke of the case of a woman, of Concetta Antico. This art teacher took a day trip to her students to a park. I wanted to show them the vividness of the colors in that special setting for her. He indicated that they should look at the pink hue with which the water of the pond gleamed. The red edging of the leaves of the trees ... But his students simply did not see any of that. It was then that he realized that she was capable of capturing an invisible world for the rest of the people. Concetta Antico was a tetrachromatist.
So what was special about Concetta? What special feature do the tetrachromats have? To understand it, we must remember that almost all of us have three types of cones, that is, three types of light-sensitive cells located in the retina. Its function is to respond to light, and each of them does it in a different bandwidth.
When we see a sunrise, or that box of chocolates in front of you, the colors you perceive will depend on the combination of all those signs. That is why, each of us can have more or less sensitivity to certain stimuli and see colors in a different way to our friends, for example. Colorblind people , on the other hand, usually have some problem with one of these three cones, hence their reduced sensitivity when it comes to capturing certain wavelengths, and their difficulties in differentiating, for example, the red from green.
But what about the tetrachromats? They have one more cone. Hence "tetra" (four) . It is a small mutation in a gene that makes the retina develop differently, "gestating", so to speak, a cone of more, giving the person a wonderful visual window from which to see the world with much more wealth and intensity. The funny thing is that you will not notice, until chance makes you see that other people do not appreciate those visual details, which for them are normal. Moreover, according to scientists, tetrachromatists can have a hundred different variants for each perceived color. Wonderful, right?
And there is still more, according to what the experts tell us, it is women who most often have this special faculty. It is estimated that almost 12% of women have 4 cones in their retinas. Although, yes, some claim that so much chromatic intensity, sometimes, can be exhausting. Entering a store full of fruits and vegetables can be somewhat chaotic, the colors are too intense, nervous, suffocating ...
Something curious for the rest of people who, like most of us, only have 3 cones in our retina
