This is great David, thanks for sharing. In fact, I think it deserves its own post. Also, wasoxygen mentioned in a comment on this thread that some women can perceive more colors than men. Is this a result of some women having either more cone cells? Again, thanks for sharing and don't be a stranger.The reason why primary colours come in sets of three is that human eyes have three types of light-detecting cells, called cone cells, used in seeing colour. L cones respond to all wavelengths, but respond most to those we see as yellow. M cones also respond to all wavelengths, but respond most to those we see as green. S cones respond most to wavelengths we see as blue and violet.
-This is something I likely learned about years ago but had forgotten. It's fascinating to think that our visual perception of our entire human experience is predicated by our cone cells. Do you know, are there animals with more cone cells that respond to different wavelengths than we do?
Yes, as indicated below, insects see ultraviolet. At the other extreme marine mammals have only one cone type, I think. A small minority of women are have four cone types, the usual L, M and S, plus a polymorphic variation of either the L or the M, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the retina is wired up to take advantage of the extra cone type. A recent investigation of 24 such women found that 23 had normal colour vision but one saw differences between pairs of stimuli that could be matched by all other observers.
I briefly learned about nectar guides in optics.are there animals with more cone cells that respond to different wavelengths than we do?
Images of a Mimulus flower in visible light (left) and ultraviolet light (right) showing a dark nectar guide that is visible to bees but not to humans
-How much of our experience while on psychotropic drugs is us enhancing our cone cells or some other such biology? theadvancedapes, is this part of what you are studying? Someday, perhaps we will be able to easily turn on and off such enhancements.
I'd wager a hefty sum that psychotropic substances don't enhance or modify the sensory receptors themselves, but that they change the way these signals are processed within the brain.