Thought experiment - colour vision

[jake williams]

My understanding of the physiology of sight isn't very profound, but I think a functioning simplified explanation is you have three types of cells that respond to a range of wavelengths of light centred around a specific frequency. Basically the three types correspond to a red, a green and a blue. These three cells hook up to neurological pathways that mean when the cells are stimulated, we perceive red, green, or blue, respectively.

The basic question is, what would happen if the red cells and the green cells were switched.

[mikelepore]

It's the cells themselves that have these different frequency responses, the peaks of the normal distribution of their sensitivity to light at various wavelengths. It's not related to a cell's connection to the optic nerve. It's caused by the kinds of proteins that are in the cells, what wavelengths each of those proteins absorb and what wavelengths they transmit.

[TC]

I think Jammone's thought experiment was meant to invoke a more philosophically sophisticated response:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/color/

Color is of serious epistomological and methodological interest.

[jake williams]

I think Jammone's thought experiment was meant to invoke a more philosophically sophisticated response.
Yeah. I admitted my knowledge of the science isn't great, and while I don't think your comment was hostile Mike, I think the point of the question is still clear?

It is however a possibility that the mechanism actually affects the perception of the colour. That would be interesting. Is there any way to study that?

[mikelepore]

Each point on the retina is illuminated with a different color light, because this is how all convex lenses focus images onto all screens. Would would happen if two cone cells were switched depends on how the brain finds out the location of each cell, which I don't know. If switching two cells causes the brain to receive incorrect information about its location, then the colors perceived at that location would be changed. If the cells have their physical addresses stored inside them for transmission to the brain, the colors perceived WOULD be changed. If the cells transmit serially onto a common bus, as a shift register circuit or a CCD camera does, the colors perceived would NOT be changed. If each cell has its own path to the brain, the colors perceived would NOT be changed.