Our retinas could be done to see a vivid tone of green blue
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Five people have witnessed an intense green blue color that humans had never seen before, thanks to a device that one day could allow those with a type of color blindness to experience a typical vision.
We perceive the color through the retina in the back of the eye, which generally contains three types of cone cells detected of qualified light s, m and l-that absorb a range of blue, green or red light, respectively, and then points to the brain. When we see something at the blue green end of the visible spectrum, at least two types of cone cells are activated at the same time because there is some overlap in the wavelengths they detect.
Ren a ng at the University of California, Berkeley, Wonde what color people would perceive if only one type of cone was activated in this part of the spectrum. He was inspired by a device called OZ, developed by other researchers who study how the eye works, who uses a capable or stimulating laser of individual cone cells.
NG and his colleagues, including scientists who build OZ, updated the device so that he could deliver light to a small square patch of approximately 1000 cone cells in the retina. Stimulating a single cone cell does not generate enough signal to induce color perception, says NG.
The researchers tested the improved version in five people, stimulating only the M cones in this small area of one eye, while the other was closed. The participants said they saw a green blue color, that the researchers have called OLO, that it was more intense than anyone they had seen before. “It’s hard to describe; it is very bright,” says NG, who has also seen Olo.
To verify these results, the participants took a color combination test. Each one saw Olo and a second color that they could tune in through a dial to any tone in the standard visible spectrum, until it coincided with OL as close as possible. Everyone dialized until it was an intense bluish green color, which supports them to see Olo as described.
In another part of the experiment, the participants used a dial to add white light to Olo or vivid blue green until they coincided even more. All participants diluted Olo, which supports him as the most intense of the two tones.
Andrew Stockman at University College London describes research as a “fun child”, but with possible medical implications. For example, the device could one day allow people with red green blindness, who find it difficult to distinguish between these colors, experience a typical vision, he says. This is because the condition is sometimes caused by m and l molten cones activated by light wavelengths that are very similar. Stimulating one on the other could allow people to see a broader range of tones, although this should be tested in the trials, says Stockman.
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