{"id":15627,"date":"2022-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?p=15627&preview=true&preview_id=15627"},"modified":"2022-07-27T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T10:14:56","slug":"what-is-tetrachromacy-and-how-do-i-know-if-ive-got-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/07\/25\/what-is-tetrachromacy-and-how-do-i-know-if-ive-got-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is tetrachromacy and how do I know if I\u2019ve got it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is tetrachromacy and how do I know if I\u2019ve got it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

SAMMY CLARKE, VIA EMAIL<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Tetrachromacy is a rare type of colour vision that allows people to see colours that other people can\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n

Most people\u2019s colour vision is \u2018trichromatic\u2019, meaning their colour vision depends on three types of specialised cells in the eye, called cones. These cones are often referred to as blue, green and red cones, depending on the wavelengths of light that trigger them. In comparison, \u2018tetrachromats\u2019 have a fourth type of cone, which is most sensitive in the yellow-green region of the visible spectrum. While those of us with three of these receptors have the ability to distinguish around a million different colours, tetrachromats are thought to see an estimated 100 million. <\/p>\n\n

It is thought that only women can be tetrachromats. The gene for cones lie on the X chromosome. A woman who has two X chromosomes can carry the normal genes on one of her X chromosomes and an anomalous gene on her other one. This genetic pattern enables her to express four types of cone.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

A woman might carry the gene if she has a son (or father) with a slight colour anomaly (such as very mild colour blindness). We can predict with some confidence that the milder the son\u2019s (or father\u2019s) colour anomaly, the better chance there is for the mother (or daughter) to see the world in different colours. <\/p>\n\n

Despite lots of claims by various websites, there\u2019s not a particularly reliable test to work out if you have tetrachromacy \u2013 the definitive way is through a genetic test. NM<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Email your questions to<\/span>
questions@sciencefocus.com<\/a>
or submit on Twitter<\/span>
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IMAGES: GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is tetrachromacy and how do I know if I\u2019ve got it? SAMMY CLARKE, VIA EMAIL Tetrachromacy is a rare type of colour vision that allows people to see colours that other people can\u2019t. Most people\u2019s colour vision is \u2018trichromatic\u2019, meaning their colour vision depends on three types of specialised cells in the eye, called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7013,"featured_media":15629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"","purple_seq_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"","purple_source_article":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"","purple_source_issue":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"Summer-2022","purple_external_id":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"Summer-2022-573f2456-3330-42c4-9b4d-3c32f6cd3e0e","purple_issue_code":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089656||","purple_android_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue380","purple_ios_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue380","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-07-26T12:05:08Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"6308e8c1-5a18-45f2-b0c2-aa962bc95994","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-07-27T10:15:01Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AYwjowVoYRfKwwqqWK8lZlA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"stephanieorgan@googlemail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/stephanieorgangooglemail-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c.jpg",1498,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c.jpg",1498,1000,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_1194706265c.jpg",1498,1000,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"stephanieorgan@googlemail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/stephanieorgangooglemail-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":11,"uagb_excerpt":"What is tetrachromacy and how do I know if I\u2019ve got it? SAMMY CLARKE, VIA EMAIL Tetrachromacy is a rare type of colour vision that allows people to see colours that other people can\u2019t. Most people\u2019s colour vision is \u2018trichromatic\u2019, meaning their colour vision depends on three types of specialised cells in the eye, called…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15627"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15896,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15627\/revisions\/15896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}