Women see colors better than men.. What is the reason?

Weather of Arabia - Women have always suffered from the fact that men do not see colors in the same way that women see them. If you think that these doubts hit the wall, then you are wrong. Where some studies have found that there is actually a difference between the ability of women and men to see colors, researchers say that females are better at distinguishing colors, while males excel in tracking moving objects quickly and distinguishing details from a distance and there is a small percentage of women who have the ability to see colors that exceed this number a hundred times.

One in 12 men is color blind

Women have suspected this for a long time, and now a study confirms that men have a higher chance of having difficulties distinguishing between shades. When looking at a group of 12 men, one of them might be colorblind, while only 1 in 255 women is colorblind. And at Newcastle University, researchers believe there are some women who can distinguish between 99 million colors better than normal people.

The researchers found that males needed a slightly longer wavelength across most of the visible spectrum than females, in order to experience the same hue. This is what was stated in the latest issue of Biology of Sex Differences

Because longer wavelengths are associated with "warmer" colors, orange, for example, may appear more red to a man than to a woman. Likewise, the herb always appears greener to women than it does to men, as green beings appear slightly more yellow to them.

A study also revealed that men are less adept at distinguishing between shades in the middle of the color spectrum, such as blue, green and yellow.

The men's ability to detect rapidly changing details from a distance is particularly evident by tracing thin, rapidly flickering bands within a group of glowing lights.

Sense of sight and color perception

The sense of sight is one of the most complex senses, as colors are perceived by visual cells known as cone cells. Each conical cell allows about 100 shades of color to be seen. In people who are colorblind, they have only two types of cone cells, and they are known as "dichromatic".

According to Dr. Jay Neitz, a veteran color vision researcher at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, each of the three traditional color-defining cone cells in the retina — blue, green and red — can distinguish between about a hundred different shades of color. However, Neitz points out, the brain is able to accumulate and multiply those differences. Where the average person can distinguish between about a million different shades of colour.

Why do women distinguish colors better than men?

Dr. Neitz, who is conducting his research with his wife, Maureen, says that only women have extraordinary color vision. This is because the genes responsible for pigments in the green and red cones are located on the X chromosome. Because women have two pairs of X chromosomes, one type of red cone cell can be activated on one chromosome and the other type on the other chromosome. In rare cases, some women can have two different types of green cone cells on each of the X chromosomes.

Not all women have super color vision

It is unlikely that all women with four types of cone cells will have superior color vision. This is explained by the fact that the pair of red cones in many women are very close in wavelength, which makes their color vision not very different from that of people with trichromatic vision. It has been suggested that 2% to 3% of the world's women may have a fourth type of cone, which lies between the traditional red and green cones, and gives them this extraordinary color variety.

Finding someone with "tetrachromatic vision" through genetic screening is rare and interesting. These individuals are known as "fourth color-tracking" women, and they carry an extra gene on the X chromosome that enables them to see a fourth type of color cone. It allows these individuals to distinguish tens of millions of additional colors that normal individuals cannot see.

Dr. Jordan started by studying a group of colorblind boys and then turned to their mothers in the reverse study. About 8% of the world's men suffer from a disorder in distinguishing between colors, and this is the term used by researchers to refer to "color blindness" . Most men with this disorder inherit two pairs of red or green cones, along with the blue cone, which makes it difficult for them to distinguish between red and green.

Dr. Jordan's team led vision tests to identify more than 100 students in the Newcastle area with color dysphoria. The doctor knew that the students' mothers had either two pairs of red or green cones, and now she puts these women to a test to see which of them are "tetrachromatic".

To even find this woman, Dr. Jordan devised a smart test. In this test, each woman looks at an optical device that shows three small discs in quick succession. Two of these discs contain an orange wavelength, while the third contains an equal mixture of red and green, and women are not told the difference between these discs.

After Dr. Jordan ran the tests, she concluded that women with two pairs of different red cones could see discs that had a mixture of red and green and distinguish them from orange discs. Twenty women have been tested so far, and only one has been able to quickly and accurately distinguish between the red-green and orange-red disc each time. Now, Dr. Jordan is running genetic tests on this woman's saliva to determine if she has different red cones.

Dr Jordan said the woman with quadruple vision, who has yet to be identified, is a doctor who lives near Newcastle. Jordan concluded that this doctor, thanks to her supernatural ability to see colors, is able to notice subtle changes in skin tones and then tell if a person is sick or not. This, which she can observe, makes her superior to ordinary doctors who do not have this miraculous ability to diagnose a patient's condition based on simple skin color changes.

Based on Dr. Neitz's estimations, it is believed that there could be around 99 million women in the world with the ability to see tetrachromats. However, we must note before they boast of their superhuman abilities that this feature, which has only recently begun to appear in humans, may have been enjoyed by birds, amphibians, and reptiles long ago.

Indeed, the ability to see tetrachromats is not exclusive to humans, but rather exists in many living creatures in nature. Birds are a group of creatures that have tetrachromatic vision, which helps them in food selection, enemies detection, and social interactions. Amphibians and reptiles also have a similar ability to see multiple colors, and this feature plays an important role in their adaptation to and interaction with their environment.

Other creatures have better color vision ability

Other creatures have the ability to see colors from a long time ago, but the difference lies in the presence of the fourth type of color sensor, which is located in the high-frequency ultraviolet range, and this exceeds what humans can see. Thanks to this discovery, scientists have been able to explain why the males of some bird species do not have feathers that appear to be more brilliantly colored than the feathers of the females. Dr. Neitz points out that the problem was with the birds being seen by the viewers, not the birds. When these species were viewed using ultraviolet probes, they found that the males had plumage that was much different from that of the females.

In addition, Dr. Neitz says that our eyes can't see the world the same way people with tetrachromacy vision can, so we have no way of knowing what advantages people with this particular color vision ability would have.

There are a lot of things in the world that are physically different from each other that the average person with trichromatic vision cannot tell, but certainly any woman with tetrachromatic vision can notice these differences.

Sources:

• bibalex
• nationalgeographic