Of the entire spectrum of light, we, humans can only see a limited range. There are some people who theoretically have the ability to see more colors than most people. These people, tetrachromats, have an extra cone in their eyes allowing them to see more light. How though do we find these people?

What if there was a piece of artwork with a hidden message that only a tetrachromat could see that was broadcasted across the world that emplored those who could read the message to contact a special contact person/receiver. With the internet and social media, this should be easier than ever to try.

One possible reason why we haven’t discovered more tetrachromats before is that the world is engineered for us trichomies so tetrachromats don’t get to exercise their fourth cone which eventually atrophies.

Have there been cases of trichromats who have lived in a dichromatic world either before or after the critical period for vision that were unable to use all three cones later?

If tetrachromacy is less prevalent because of lack of “practice,” what if all images were optimized for tetrachromats and in 10, 20, 30 years researchers perform another search for functional tetrachromats? What is the genetic makeup of functional and nonfunctional tetrachromats?

Can trichromatism and tetrachromatism be introduced into animal models (rodents and macaques) for further research? Can organoids be used to study this phenomenon?

Can exercises and pharmaceuticals, natural or manufactured be used to activate a nonfunctional fourth cone and or inhibit a cone or cones of a trichromat? What would artwork of a functional tetrachromat look like? Would a trichromat be able to tell the difference?

The continent of Africa has the most genetic diversity of any region in the world. There may be a higher prevalence of tetrachromats there?

Why are daughters of colorblind fathers often nonfunctional tetrachromats? Does this inheritance of a fourth cone occur in visual normative (trichromats) individuals as well? What can we learn from natural tetrachromatic animals?

Featured Image: Solar Radiation by MIT OpenCourseWareFollow

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Additional Resources

https://futurism.com/uk-woman-extra-cone-cell-her-eyes-can-see-more-colors

https://fox6now.com/2015/03/02/how-many-colors-do-you-see-this-simple-test-may-or-may-not-reveal-something-fascinating-about-your-eye/

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/326976

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-humans-with-super-human-vision