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starfyredragon t1_iyeg0c1 wrote

Reply to comment by tdgros in Do people with tetrachromacy or colorblindness experience seasonal affective disorder at the same rate and intensity as people with trichromacy? by Millennial_Glacier

In a college lab of about 25 students, we were experimenting with a spectrometer (a device that can emit all of a range of light). We got into an argument if a sample was lighting up in the spectrometer or not, so we decided to dry-run the spectrometer. Turned out, we couldn't agree on the dry run either. So, we decided that the X variable was ourselves. So we tested the vision range of all the students in the class. Half were spot-on visible light spectrum. One was known color-blind, and two others discovered they were colorblind that day. Most others were very close to standard visual range, with two exceptions. Me and one other girl discovered we were tetrachromates, but in different ways. She, (an ex-fighter pilot, how she paid for college), saw about half-again of the visible light spectrum into the ultra-violet. I saw half-again into infrared. We looked it up and found both were types of tetrachromate. Seeing that fourth primary color as the only light in the spectrometer kind of "called it out" that it was a fourth color and not just some weird eye condition that had made so many things "fuzzy coloring" as I grew up.

I call my fourth primary color Octarine.

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tdgros t1_iyei5h7 wrote

interesting, can you point me to the "types" of tetrachromates? the wiki page does not know about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans .

Note that the cornea and eye lens block most UV light anyway so your colleague seems very special. She probably did not have aphakia if she used to be a fighter pilot.

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FriendlyDisorder t1_iyeq9q1 wrote

I would love to know if you have different versions of "gray" and "white" when viewing different combinations of your primary colors. For example, do you get a "red-gray" and a "green-gray" and "blue-gray" and a "gray-gray"?

I should be thankful of my normal color vision, but I have always wished I could experience vision as a tetrachromate.

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starfyredragon t1_iyeslag wrote

I mean, as far as I know, trichromates get a red-gray, a green-gray, a blue-gray, and a gray-gray already - tinted grays. I just have an additional octarine-gray.

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