A team of scientists claims to have discovered a new color that no human has never seen before.
Research follows an experience in which researchers in the United States have had laser pulses drawn in their eyes.
By stimulating specific cells in the retina, the participants claim to have witnessed a blue-green color that scientists called “OLO”, but some experts said that the existence of a new color was “open to the argument”.
The results, Posted in La Revue Science Advances On Friday, the study co-author was described, Professor Ren NG of the University of California, as “remarkable”.
He and his colleagues believe that the results could potentially deepen research on color blindness.
Professor NG, who was one of the five people to participate in the experience, told BBC Radio 4 on Saturday that Olo was “more saturated than any color you can see in the real world”.
“Let’s say that you get around your whole life and you only see pink, baby pink, a pastel pink,” he said.
“And one day, you go to the office and someone wears a shirt, and it’s the most intense baby pink you’ve ever seen, and they say it’s a new color and we call it red.”
During the team experience, the researchers shone a laser beam in the pupil with an eye of each participant.
There were five participants in the study – four men and a woman – who all had a vision of normal colors. Three of the participants – including the professor – were co -authors of the research document.
According to the research document, the participants examined a device called OZ which consists of mirrors, lasers and optical devices. The equipment was designed previously by some of the researchers involved – a team of scientists from the Berkeley UC and the University of Washington, and updated for use in this study.
The retina is a layer of tissue sensitive to light at the back of the eye responsible for the reception and processing of visual information. It converts light into electrical signals, which are then transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve, allowing us to see.
The retina includes coastal cells, which are cells responsible for perception of color.
There are three types of conical cells in the eyes – S, L and M – and each is sensitive to different blue, red and green wavelengths respectively.
According to the research document, in normal vision, “any light that stimulates a cone cell M must also stimulate its neighboring L and / or S cones”, because its function rides them.
However, in the study, the laser has only stimulated the M cones, “which in principle would send a brain -colored signal that never occurs in a natural vision,” said the newspaper.
This means that the OLO color could not be seen by the naked eye of a person in the real world without the help of specific stimulation.
To check the color observed during the experience, each participant has adjusted a controllable color dial until it corresponds to OLO.
Some experts, however, say that the new perceived color is a “question of interpretation”.
Professor John Barbur, scientist of the vision of City St George’s, University of London, who was not involved in the study, said that if research is a “technological feat” in the stimulation of selective conical cells, the discovery of a new color is “open to the argument”.
He explained that if, for example, the cells of the red cone (L) were stimulated in large numbers, people “would perceive a deep red”, but the perceived brightness can change depending on the modifications of sensitivity to the red cone, which is not different from what happened in this study.
But the co-author of the study, Professor NG, admitted that although Olo is “certainly very technically difficult” to see, the team studies the results to see what it could potentially mean for the blind, who find it difficult to distinguish certain colors.