Chickens Outperform Human Ability To See Colours

By Staff

Thursday, February 18, 2010, 14:56

It may seem surprising but the fact is that chickens outperform human's ability to see colours. The researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that chicken retina is more powerful than a human retina.

Researchers have mapped five types of in the chicken's eye. The receptors were found to be interwoven in mosaics that maximized the chicken's ability to see many more colours in any given part of the retina. Retina is the light-sensing part at the back of the eye.

"Based on this analysis, birds have clearly one-upped us in several ways in terms of colour vision," says Joseph C. Corbo, Senior Author and Assistant Professor of Pathology and Immunology.

Colour receptors found in the retina of a chicken's eye greatly exceeds in number than what is present in any mammal.

Prof. Corbo said that such insights could eventually help scientists to use stem cells and other new techniques to treat the nearly 200 genetic disorders that can cause various forms of blindness.