There is research indicating that the pathway for SAD is through a different receptor in the eye, known as the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), rather than through the cones used to detect color.

See paper here as an example of this research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30173913/

And general article discussing the issue here:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/21/678342879/scientists-find-a-brain-circuit-that-could-explain-seasonal-depression

So while I dont have any direct studies that would quantify the rate at which colorblind people experience SAD compared to normal color vision, it would be unexpected to find a rate difference based on the actual pathway being part of a different receptor in the eyes than the cones used for color vision.

Thank you, I appreciate your time. I didn't have the jargon to satisfy that particular aspect of my curiosity. Hopefully you don't mind me asking a few follow up questions.

Does the same hold true for episodic neurological conditions that can be triggered through photoreceptors, e.g. seizures and migraines?

Given the broad visual spectrum of mantis shrimp, could the cone structures in their eyes be replicated in solar panels for increased efficiency?

Could solar panels be backed with something akin to vantablack and a structure that uses the Peltier Effect to help capture infrared light and energy lost as heat?

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Oooh! I have a reply for the last question: Stirling generators. There has been some research into utilizing the left over heat of solar panels to also mobilize Stirling generators. The thinking there is to create a kinetic energy storage cell that is capable of powering the grid after dark. Most are looking at pumping large volumes of water to do that.

To address the second question, no, the cone structures of Mantis shrimp have no applicability to solar panels. Their cones enable them to more easily differentiate between specific wavelengths, but solar panels have no use for that information.

If a wavelength is too short, it will pass through the solar cell entirely, and if it is too long, it will not have enough energy to excite the electrons in the silicon material responsible for capturing photons, resulting in little to no energy.

This effectively means there is a range of wavelengths that are useful for solar panels (with the most effective being in the yellow-red range)- enabling them to “see” more colors wouldn’t accomplish anything.

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can I ask how you discovered you were tetrachromate and how you tested for it?

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That is awesome, thanks for introducing something new to learn about. It would be cool, maybe not practical, if someone found a way to use that in tandem with a water based gravity battery. Like send the water up hill into a large shallow basin to collect heat from the sun or be chilled by the environment. Then extract that thermal potential before sending the water to the generators at the bottom of the hill. Wouldn't be useful when the weather is mild, but could help with storage and production during the coldest and hotest times of year.

In a college lab of about 25 students, we were experimenting with a spectrometer (a device that can emit all of a range of light). We got into an argument if a sample was lighting up in the spectrometer or not, so we decided to dry-run the spectrometer. Turned out, we couldn't agree on the dry run either. So, we decided that the X variable was ourselves. So we tested the vision range of all the students in the class. Half were spot-on visible light spectrum. One was known color-blind, and two others discovered they were colorblind that day. Most others were very close to standard visual range, with two exceptions. Me and one other girl discovered we were tetrachromates, but in different ways. She, (an ex-fighter pilot, how she paid for college), saw about half-again of the visible light spectrum into the ultra-violet. I saw half-again into infrared. We looked it up and found both were types of tetrachromate. Seeing that fourth primary color as the only light in the spectrometer kind of "called it out" that it was a fourth color and not just some weird eye condition that had made so many things "fuzzy coloring" as I grew up.

I call my fourth primary color Octarine.

interesting, can you point me to the "types" of tetrachromates? the wiki page does not know about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans .

Note that the cornea and eye lens block most UV light anyway so your colleague seems very special. She probably did not have aphakia if she used to be a fighter pilot.

Reality strikes again, but also thank you. I was reading about how conical electrodes are used to extract energy from plasma. Which led me to thinking about how the eye has conical structures that capture different wavelengths of light, and I wondered if that could be replicated and applied to solar generation. Then came the thought about visual perspective and SAD.

My fragile ego needs you to know that it knows solar panels don't "see" and it was curious if cones had further uses in energy extraction.

edit: To further elaborate, I was picturing a solar panel made with alternating strips of current solar tech and a hypothetical cone-based material that captures green to violet, maybe UV too. Then overlay that with a textured material acting as a prism directing light to the corresponding strip.

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I would love to know if you have different versions of "gray" and "white" when viewing different combinations of your primary colors. For example, do you get a "red-gray" and a "green-gray" and "blue-gray" and a "gray-gray"?

I should be thankful of my normal color vision, but I have always wished I could experience vision as a tetrachromate.

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I mean, as far as I know, trichromates get a red-gray, a green-gray, a blue-gray, and a gray-gray already - tinted grays. I just have an additional octarine-gray.

A big piece of SAD is related to Vitamin D production in the body, which doesn’t happen due to the eye at all, but due to skin exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D is converted from endogenous cholesterol (the cholesterol made in the human liver) by the radiation from sunlight. It’s sort of like the human form of photosynthesis.

Would that mean that conceivably exposing yourself to light from an open window even while eyes closed sleeping could help with SAD?