Feb 4, 2022
Meet the artist whose genetic mutation means she can see 100 times more colors than you
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: genetics, media & arts
Concetta Antico is the world’s most famous tetrachromat, meaning she has four types of color receptors (cone cells) in her eyes. Most of us have three types. As a result of this mutation, Antico can see around 100 million colors, 100 times more than other people. Antico is an artist and she says that her psychedelic color paintings depict what she perceives. I wonder though what her paintings look like through her eyes. From The Guardian:
According to Dr Kimberly Jameson, a University of California scientist who has studied Antico, just having the gene – which around 15% of women have – is not alone sufficient to be a tetrachromat, but it’s a necessary condition. “In Concetta’s case … one thing we believe is that because she’s been painting sort of continuously since the age of seven years old, she has really enlisted this extra potential and used it. This is how genetics works: it gives you the potential to do things and if the environment demands that you do that thing, then the genes kick in.”[…]