Color blindness cure on the horizon?

[patchbunny]

Therapy fixes red-green color blindness in monkeys

Monkeys once color-blind can now see the world in full color thanks to gene therapy. The results demonstrate the potential for such methods to eventually cure human vision disorders, from color blindness to possibly other conditions leading to full blindness.

The primate patients, named Dalton and Sam, are two adult, male squirrel monkeys that were red-green color-blind since birth - a condition that similarly affects human males more than females. Five months after researchers injected human genes into the monkeys' eyes, the duo could see red as if they had always had this ability.

[snippity]

Be interesting to see if this enters human testing in the next decade.

 

[Dorfl]

That's cool! I'm surprised that the monkeys' brains adapted so quickly.

 

[Delvo]

That's cool! I'm surprised that the monkeys' brains adapted so quickly.

It was known ahead of time that our brains come with the ability to receive the full array of color information that the eyes are supposed to send, even if the eyes have never actually sent everything they were supposed to. The reason why is a fun little story-snippet all by itself, involving an unrelated condition: synesthesia, the accidental crossing over of sensory information from one sense organ into the area of the brain that's meant for another sense. One of the most common versions of it is auditory information ending up in the visual cortex, which most often manifests as red sparks seen in the view field when sharp, high-pitched sounds are heard. A few people have had that condition AND a lack of functioning red-cones in their retinas. They report that when their synesthesia is kicking in, they "see" colors that they never see otherwise.

 

[alfaniner]

Five months after researchers injected human genes into the monkeys' eyes, the duo could see red as if they had always had this ability.

So, if I had human genes I might be able to see normally?

 

[arthwollipot]

Awesome.

 

[yy2bggggs]

A few people have had that condition AND a lack of functioning red-cones in their retinas. They report that when their synesthesia is kicking in, they "see" colors that they never see otherwise.

Could you provide a citation?

 

[sphenisc]

Does this mean we'll finally be able answer the Knowledge Argument empirically?

 

[Delvo]

Could you provide a citation?

For the sound-induced one I just described, I can't remember where I read it, but here's a bit from Discover magazine mentioning people who get the same effect from seeing shapes as if they were different colors (red 2s or Zs, green Ss or 5s):

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/11/05/martian-colors/

 

[Jeff Corey]

...The primate patients, named Dalton and Sam, are two adult, male squirrel monkeys that were red-green color-blind since birth - a condition that similarly affects human males more than females. Five months after researchers injected human genes into the monkeys' eyes, the duo could see red as if they had always had this ability...

So Dalton was cured of Daltonism.

"Daltonism: Colorblindness of the red-green type (also known as deuteranopia or deuteranomaly).
The term "Daltonism" is derived from the name of the chemist and physicist, John Dalton (1766-1844)."

 

[Dorfl]

It was known ahead of time that our brains come with the ability to receive the full array of color information that the eyes are supposed to send, even if the eyes have never actually sent everything they were supposed to.

I've met a guy who claimed to be blue-green colorblind, not because anything was wrong with his eyes, but because his visual centre apparently had never figured out that the "blue"-signal and the "green"-signal were different. Since his brain had gotten the same signals his whole life without figuring it out, I was surprised the monkeys' could handle completely new input with no problems.

 

[Elaedith]

Could you provide a citation?

Ramachandran has done a lot of work in this area. There is a reference to a colour-blind person with synthaethesia seeing 'Martian colours' in this paper: http://cbc.ucsd.edu/pdf/Synaesthesia - JCS.pdf

 

[alfaniner]

http://www.vischeck.com/info/wade.php shows some good examples of what the world looks like to the color-blind (check the Examples link also).

 

[yy2bggggs]

Ramachandran has done a lot of work in this area. ...

For the sound-induced one I just described, ...

To both of you... awesome, and thanks!

 

[arthwollipot]

I've met a guy who claimed to be blue-green colorblind, not because anything was wrong with his eyes, but because his visual centre apparently had never figured out that the "blue"-signal and the "green"-signal were different. Since his brain had gotten the same signals his whole life without figuring it out, I was surprised the monkeys' could handle completely new input with no problems.

I know a guy who just can't see the clour blue. He knows something's blue because it's that particular shade of grey. Apparently it took him thirty years to work out what was wrong.