Concetta Antico, an impressionist artist, has been in the headlines lately for a rare eye condition that allows her to see more colors than the average person. Tetrachromacy is a condition where the eyes have four different types of photoreceptor cone cells instead of three, allowing a person to see a broader spectrum of colors. This condition is very rare among humans and is believed to be much more common in females than males. Antico, who lives in California, claims to be able to process up to 100 million colors, based on recent genotyping. (The average person can see about one million colors.) But because there is so little research done on tetrachromats, its unknown whether humans possess the right neural pathways to process all the wavelengths a fourth cone absorbs. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have been studying Antico and hope to unlock more information about her rare eye condition. Antico believes that painting in an impressionist style gives her the freedom to show how she perceives color. concettaantico/
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:43:45 +0000