# Can this woman really recognize color by touch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729 "2005-10-11T09:42:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/41 "2005-10-13T01:34:15Z")
Memo to self: 1. Finish Post 2. Post :smack: > [@picunurse](#): > > I was wearing a red dress. He ran his hand down my back and said "Red? And he didn’t offer to show is ability with _other_ articles you were wearing? Lucky guess, unless he could do it consistantly, then he gets to win Randi’s prize. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/42 "2005-10-13T01:53:44Z")
He runs his hand down her back and says, “Red?” “No,” she says. “I didn’t think so.” ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/43 "2005-10-13T03:29:13Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > As I understand it, all **Peter** is doping is to offer an explanation of how someone who was blind could quite innocently claim to ‘feel’ colours; it may be that this doesn’t match the phenomenon being described in the five pithy paragraphs in the linked article, but that’s not really the point; the point is that not everyone who says ‘I can feel colours’ is either mistaken, lying or magic; True, they’re not sensing anything that relates meaningfully to colour in the sighted world, but they can be ‘feeling colour’ without being deliberately dishonest, or supernaturally endowed. My goodness what a storm in a teacup. And if the relevant person merely said she could feel colours when she touches things, it would be a relevant storm. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/44 "2005-10-13T03:39:28Z")
Well, in the interest of thoroughly exhausting the possibilities, it appears that extraocular photoreception in humans has not been ruled out entirely. A number of animals apparently have demonstrated it (including birds, tadpoles, squid?), including sensitivity through the skin and/or pineal gland as well as sensitivity to color (here’s [food for thought](http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6793/3/9)). And there was that study a few years back that claimed that you could reset the biological clock in humans by shining light behind the knees. Of course that study’s controversial - but the upshot is it’s not quite patently absurd to suggest that there may be photoreceptors outside the eye. So if we suppose the woman is some sort of genetic throwback with some vestigal newt-like color-sensitive photoreceptors in her skin or forebrain, who knows? Anything’s possible. Of course photoreception is not the same thing as vision at all, but if the hypothetical extraocular photoreceptors were color-sensitive, and if their action was something that could be consciously sensed, we could hypothesize some means of getting color information into the consciousness via the skin. About equally likely (i.e. \*not \*) would be the possibilty of some functioning teratoma - a third eye - somewhere on her body. There are cases of tumors that include fully formed eyes (anybody read the Dark Half? blech). In my quick googling I couldn’t find any cases of functioning eyes and it sounds pretty damn unlikely, but again who knows. Just so we think of everything before we come to the inevitable conclusion that she’s looking through that little hole between the blindfold and her nose. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/45 "2005-10-13T03:58:24Z")
> [@Simon](#): > > She said: “I took me 20 years to master this skill. It is a combination of pure learning and concentration.” > > Ms Simon added: “This ability really gives me more independence, as I don’t need to ask my mother about what to wear anymore.” Would it be easier to spend **20 minutes** to work out a tactile tagging system than spend **20 years** trying to learn how to see through your freaking fingertips. Shheesh. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/46 "2005-10-13T09:29:03Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > Just so we think of everything before we come to the inevitable conclusion that she’s looking through that little hole between the blindfold and her nose. OK, we thought about it. Can we go back to the inevitable conclusion? ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/47 "2005-10-13T09:32:42Z")
> [@TokyoPlayer](#): > > OK, we thought about it. Can we go back to the inevitable conclusion? You didn’t find the possibility of extraocular photoreception fascinating? I don’t understand. You must not be a geek or something. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729/48 "2005-10-13T10:15:32Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] Don’t read German, but as pointed out, she’s being handed clothing. The picture is small, but the two samples shown appear to have different fabric. The blindfold also looks suspicious. It’s Randi time. > [@picunurse](#): > > and he didn’t offer to show is ability with _other_ articles you were wearing? Really! I wouldn’t be a lady if I told you that! No, he didn’t. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-this-woman-really-recognize-color-by-touch/325729.md?page=2)