Could tetrachromats hold the key to early coronavirus detection?
By Maureen Seaberg
“It was a Rosetta Stone moment; I felt like we had broken the code.”
The recent correspondence from Kristopher Jake Patten, Ph.D., an affable and brilliant scientist studying the senses at Arizona State University, was epic. I realized I may be witnessing scientific history.
Late last year, Dr. Patten employed his new, breakthrough diagnostic pilot test to study talented interior designers Susan Hogan of Pittsburgh and Megan Arquette of Los Angeles and me. We all have positive DNA tests for tetrachromacy. He wanted to see if our rare color vision genes are functional. It appears they are in all three cases.
Tetrachromacy, or the presence of a fourth cone class in the retina, results in exponentially enhanced color vision. While it is rare, it is even rarer to find functionality testing for it. Research into this ability is very new and there needs to be much more funding for interested scientists. Even DNA testing is not yet widely available.
We were asked to take an online test that was something like a game or perceptual illusion, and each of us did so remotely from our homes. We answered separately without conferring with one another and anxiously awaited the results.
