Color Blindness

A Genetic Condition

Color blindness doesn't mean that you'll have to watch your TV in black and white.

It would have saved money, had it been so!

It only means that certain hues and pairs of colors can not be distinguished from one another.

Red - green blindness is the commonest one.

Blue - yellow does exist but is rare.

Yeah, total color blindness is also there - you can save your money in buying a black and white TV for yourself! - but it's extremely rare.

Since it's a genetic condition and the genes are carried by X chromosomes, males with X-Y pairing have more chances of acquiring it than females with X-X pairing (chances of both X chromosomes carrying color deficient genes are much less).

Color blindness, in general, is a genetic condition, hence it doesn't have any treatment. Yes, as the Genome Project takes up heads on, it might become possible one day!

Color blindness is a malfunction of the retina. Retina converts light energy into electrical energy that is then transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve. This conversion is accomplished by two types of photoreceptor cells in the retina: rods and cones.

Now the cones are the color encoders. Each one of them contains visual pigments sensitive to one of the three color wavelengths - red, green, and blue. All the colors can be synthesized by mixing three of them.

If any one of them is absent or doesn't function properly in the cone cells of a person, it results in color vision deficiency. Red - green deficiency is common; blue deficiency is rare.

Ishihara color test is the most common test used for diagnosing color deficiency.

Common Types of Color Vision Deficiency:

• Protanomaly (1% male population) - Characterized by 'red weakness'. They see less of red, hence will tend to miss the reddishness of purple and mistake it for blue, for example.

• Deuteranomaly (5% male population) - This is the opposite of protanomaly and is characterized by its 'green weakness'. This man too will have difficulty perceiving purple and mistake it to be reddish.

• Dicromasy (2% male population) - They see no perceptible difference between red, orange, yellow, and green. They are all same for them.

• Protanopia (1% male population) - The brightness of red, orange, and yellow dims down a lot. Even the red traffic lights may appear to be extinguished!

• Deuteranopia (1% male population) - Same problem but with less of dimming.

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