Monochromacy is the ability of organisms or machines to perceive only light intensity, without respect to spectral composition. Organisms with monochromacy are called monochromats. For example, about 1 in 30,000 people have monochromatic vision because the color-sensitive cone cells in their eyes do not function. Affected people can distinguish light, dark, and shades of gray but not color. Many species, such as marine mammals, the owl monkey and the Australian sea lion are monochromats under normal conditions. In humans, absence of color discrimination or poor color discrimination is one among several other symptoms of severe inherited or acquired diseases, as for example inherited achromatopsia, acquired achromatopsia or inherited blue cone monochromacy.
Humans
Vision in humans is due to a system that includes rod and cone photoreceptors, retinal ganglion cells and the visual cortex in the brain. Color vision is primarily achieved through cone cells. Cone cells are more concentrated in the fovea centralis, which is the central portion of the retina. This allows greater spatial resolution and color discrimination. Rod cells are concentrated in the periphery of the human retina. Rod cells are more light sensitive than cone cells, and are mainly responsible for scotopic vision. Cones in most humans have three types of opsins with different spectral sensitivities which allow for trichromatic color discrimination, whereas rods all have a similar, broad spectral response which does not allow for color discrimination. Because of the distribution of rods and cones in the human eye, people have good color vision near the fovea but not in the periphery. These types of color blindness can be inherited, resulting from alterations in cone pigments or in other proteins needed for the process of phototransduction:
Anomalous trichromacy, when one of the three cone pigments is altered in its spectral sensitivity but trichromacy is not fully impaired.
Dichromacy, when one of the cone pigments is missing and colour is reduced to the green-red distinction only or the blue-yellow distinction only.
Monochromacy, when two of the cones are not functional. Vision reduced to blacks, whites, and greys.
Rod monochromacy, when all three of the cones are non functional and light perception is achieved only with rod cells. Color vision is heavily or completely impaired, vision reduced to seeing only the level of light coming from an object. Dyschromatopsia is a less severe type of achromatopsia.
Monochromacy is one of the symptoms of diseases that occur when only one kind of light receptor in the human retina is functional at a particular level of illumination. It is one of the symptoms of either acquired or inherited disease as for example acquired achromatopsia, inherited autosomal recessive achromatopsia and recessive X-linked blue cone monochromacy. There are two basic types of monochromacy. "Animals with monochromatic vision may be either rod monochromats or cone monochromats. These monochromats contain photoreceptors which have a single spectral sensitivity curve."
Rod monochromacy, also called congenital complete achromatopsia or total color blindness, is a rare and extremely severe form of an autosomal recessively inherited retinal disorder resulting in severe visual handicap. People with RM have a reduced visual acuity,, have total color blindness, photo-aversion and nystagmus. The nystagmus and photo-aversion usually are present during the first months of life, and the prevalence of the disease is estimated to be 1 in 30,000 worldwide. Additionally, since patients with RM have no cone function and normal rod function, a rod monochromat cannot see any color but only shades of grey. Also see Pingelap#Total color blindness.
Cone monochromacy is the condition of having both rods and cones, but only having one functioning type of cone. A cone monochromat can have good pattern vision at normal daylight levels, but will not be able to distinguish hues.
In humans, who have three types of cones, the short wavelength sensitive, middle wavelength sensitive and long wavelength sensitive cones have three differing forms of cone monochromacy, named according to the single functioning cone class:
Blue cone monochromacy, also known as S-cone monochromacy, is an X-linked cone disease. It is a rare congenital stationary cone dysfunction syndrome, affecting less than 1 in 100,000 individuals, and is characterized by the absence of L- and M-cone function. BCM results from mutations in a single red or red–green hybrid opsin gene, mutations in both the red and the green opsin genes or deletions within the adjacent LCR on the X chromosome.
Green cone monochromacy, also known as M-cone monochromacy, is a condition where the blue and red cones are absent in the fovea. The prevalence of this type of monochromacy is less than 1 in 1 million.
Red cone monochromacy, also known as L-cone monochromacy, is a condition where the blue and green cones are absent in the fovea. Like GCM, RCM is also present in less than 1 in 1 million people. Animal research studies have shown that the nocturnal wolf and ferret have lower densities of L-cone receptors.
Cone monochromacy, type II, if its existence were established, would be the case in which the retina contains no rods, and only a single type of cone. Such an animal would be unable to see at all at lower levels of illumination, and of course would be unable to distinguish hues. In practice, it is hard to produce an example of such a retina, at least as the normal condition for a species.
Animals that are monochromats
It used to be confidently claimed that most mammals other than primates were monochromats. In the last half-century, however, evidence of at least dichromatic color vision in a number of mammalian orders has accumulated. While typical mammals are dichromats, with S and L cones, two of the orders of marine mammals, the pinnipeds and cetaceans clearly are cone monochromats, since the short-wavelength sensitive cone system is genetically disabled in these animals. The same is true of the owl monkeys, genus Aotus. A recent study using through PCR analysis of genes OPN1SW, OPN1LW, and PDE6C determined that all mammals in the order Xenarthra developed rod monochromany through a stem ancestor. Researchers Leo Peichl, Guenther Behrmann and Ronald H. H. Kroeger report that of the many animal species studied, there are three carnivores that are cone monochromats: raccoon, crab-eating raccoon and kinkajou and a few rodents are cone monochromats because they are lacking the S-cone. These researchers also report that the animal's living environment also plays a significant role in the animals' eyesight. They use the example of water depth and the smaller amount of sunlight that is visible as one continues to go down. They explain it as follows, "Depending on the type of water, the wavelengths penetrating deepest may be short or long " Therefore, the variety of visible availability in some animals resulted in them losing their S-cone opsins.
Monochromat capability
According to Jay Neitz, a color vision researcher at the University of Washington, each of the three standard color-detecting cones in the retina of trichromats can detect approximately 100 gradations of color. The brain can process the combinations of these three values so that the average human can distinguish about one million colors. Therefore, a monochromat would be able to distinguish about 100 colors.
