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3 6 6 J a i n e t a l Indi an J Phys io l Pharma col 2010; 54(4)

Ind ian J Phys io l Pharmaco l 2010 ; 54 (4 ) : 366370

C orresponding Au tho r : Dr . N idh i Ja in , Assoc ia te P ro fesso r , Dep t t . o f Phys io logy , SGR R IM&HS,Dehraudun ; Emai l : n idh i0808 ja in@red i f fmai l . com; Mob . : 9412233721

GENDER BASED ALTERATION IN COLOR PERCEPTION

NIDHI JAIN* , PUNAM VERMA*, SUNITA MITTAL*,

SANJEEV MITTAL**, ANAND KUMAR SINGH*

AND SHASHI MUNJAL***

Departments of Physiology*, Ophthalmology** and Anatomy***

Sri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical & Health Sciences,

Patel Nagar, Dehradun 248 001

( R ecei v ed on M a rch 1 5 , 2 01 0 )

Abstract : Human beings are able to perceive hundreds of shades of color

which depends on the three types of cone system and various rat ios of

s t imula t ion in response to d i f feren t wavelengths . Percep tual ly and

cognitively, men and women may experience appearance of color differently.

Therefore, this study was planned to assess and compare color vision in

male and female subjects. This study was carried out in the department of

Physiology, SGRRIM&HS, Dehradun on 60 ocular healthy subjects (equal

number of males and females) of 1722 years of age group. The task was

to match 22 test color strips with 2 shade charts of different colors. Total

number of correct answers and total t ime taken in matching al l the test

co lor s t r ips wi th the shade char t s was recorded in bo th the sexes and

analyzed. The results of this study showed that overall, females gave more

correct responses (P

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Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2010; 54(4) Gender and Color 367

systems on reaching brain are compared to

be perce iv ed (2 , 3, 4) .

About 8% of men exhibi t a heredi tary

deficiency of color perception but recently it

was recognized that there are measurable

di f ferences in the color percept ion even

amongst the people with normal color vision

(2). The subject of color and gender is an

important and intricate topic. There may be

some logic behind the widely accepted

modern color convention of pink-for-gir ls

and blue-for-boys . Here convention seems

to be tha t women tend to prefer br ighter

and gra t i fying colors and men are more

comfortable with stifled and soft colors. The

reason may be l inked to hormonal ,

developmental and environmental differences

amongst both the sexes (5) .

Therefore, this study was planned in a

very s imple and interes t ing manner toevaluate the difference of normal color vision

between two sexes of the same age group.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The s tudy was conducted in the

depar tment of Physiology, SGRRIM&HS,

Dehradun. Ins t i tu t ional E thica l Commit tee

approved this study. 60 young and heal thy

subjects of 1722 yrs of age having normal

visual acui ty volunteered in th i s s tudy.Informed consent from all the subjects was

taken. The subjects were divided into two

groups Group 1 had 30 male subjects and

Group 2 had 30 female subjects. History of

any disorder related to ocular diseases was

ruled out .

The tes t was done in br ight sunl ight

between 12.003.00 pm. There were 22 test

color s t r ips and 2 shade char t s (F ig . 1)

having various shades of different colors, and

they were numbered wi th secre t code

numbers. These test color st r ips and shade

charts were given to each subject. Then each

subject was asked to match all the test color

strips one by one with the shade charts and

the code numbers were noted down. Tota l

number of cor rec t answers was a l so

evaluated. Total time taken in the matching

of all test color strips with shade charts wasalso recorded by s top watch for each

individual . Stat ist ical analysis was done by

using unpaired student t test. The level of

signif icance was

Fig. 1 : Shade char ts and tes t co lor s t rip s.

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P

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Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2010; 54(4) Gender and Color 369

the gene that encodes the photo pigment of

the long wavelength sensi t ive cones in the

retina (6). More than 95% of all variations

in human color vision involve the red-green

receptors in mens eyes. Wald suggested that

the genes for red and green receptors were

al tered in men. He also thought that these

genes must l i e near each other on the

x-chromosome (7) . Anomalous color vision,

which i s usual ly a genet ica l ly determined

normal state, is always a decrease in finenessof color perception. It is predominantly seen

in males as it is carried on X-chromosome (8).

Dr. Neitz who conducted his research on

female color vision, said only women have

the potential for super color vision. That is

because the genes for the pigments in red

and green cones l i e on the x-chromosome

and only women have two x-chromosomes,

creating the opportunity for one type of red

cone to be act ivated on one x-chromosomeand the other type of red cone on the other

one. In a few cases, women may have two

distinct green cones on either x-chromosome

but these two red cones may be very close

to each other in the wavelengths. So only

few additional shades are perceived (9).

Bimler in hi s s tudy sugges ted re la t ive

di f ferences in the sa l ience of color -space

axes, with the males tending to attend more

to a l ightness axis and less to a red-greenaxis . They are a l so less re l iable in the i r

ju dg emen ts . Th is may be du e to ex is te nce of

pho to pig me nt het ero zy gos it y am ong fe mal es

whi le males are hemizygous , and gender

differences in overall color awareness (6, 10,

11, 12, 13).

Red and green cones may be more

developed in females and this is proved by

their liking towards shades of red and green

colors . Red and green cones may be less

developed in males therefore male subjects

liked mostly shades of black and blue colors.

These f indings may a l so be re la ted to the

high incidence of red green color blindness

in males (1, 11, 14).

Color percept ion represents a major

adaptive advantage which has been given by

evolut ionary pathways . I t i s such an

important mechanism of biological signaling,

a source of information from the environment.

There are fac tors other than those re la ted

wi th phys iological v i sual processes

influencing such percept ion, which may be

linked to the presence of estrogen receptors

on the ret ina (13).

Gui l ford and Smi th (1959) found men

were genera l ly more to lerant towardsachromat ic colors than women. Therefore ,

they proposed that women might be more

color-conscious and their color tastes more

flexible and diverse (1).

In a study on Nepalese, Curtis & Bolton

(1978) found that women consistently listed

more color names than men. Greene (1995)

examined the color ident i f ica t ion and

vocabulary ski l l s of col lege s tudents . The

resul t s showed that women recognizedsignificantly more elaborate colors than did

the men (1).

At the end of this study we came to the

conclus ion that the females can see more

range of colors as compared to males . In

other words , the beaut i ful wor ld i s more

colorful to the females.

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of D15 caps : co lor-v is ion defects among tobacco

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