On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:38:28 +0000, "C.J.L. Wolf"
<C.J.L.Wolf at ncl.ac.uk> wrote:
>The genes that determine the spectral sensitivity of L and M - cones are
>on the X - chromosome. Mutations in the genes can alter their spectral
>sensitivity (most males who are 'colourblind' have both L and M cones, but
>either the L or M pigment has mutated to more closely resemble the other,
>impairing their colour vision). Women have 2 X-chromosomes, so can
>potentially have up to 2 different versions of hte L-cone pigment, and 2
>different versions of the M-cone pigment. Lyonisation - random
>inactivation of one X-chromosome in each cell) means that women may
>theoretically have up to 5 cone classes, each with a different spectral
>sensitivity. i.e. L1 L2 M1 M2 S... Gabrielle Jordan and John Mollon
>studied a tetrachromatic female, and showed that she could see colours
>that no-one else could.
JD Mollon is certainly someone who does a lot of work in this area.
However a search of the US National Library of Medicine (PubMed at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/) for "Mollon" gave 100 hits, none
of which seemed to be this work. Searching "Jordan" gave 1184, far
too many to scan, but the combination Mollon and Jordan gave none. I
also found nothing in the 19 hits on "tetrachromatic". Do you have a
citation?
What does it mean "colours that no-one else could [see]". Does
it mean she could separate test stimuli as looking different when
others thought they looked the same?