Are dogs red-green colour blind? - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2017 Nov 8;4(11):170869.

doi: 10.1098/rsos.170869. eCollection 2017 Nov.

Affiliations

Are dogs red-green colour blind?

Marcello Siniscalchi et al. R Soc Open Sci. 2017.

Abstract

Neurobiological and molecular studies suggest a dichromatic colour vision in canine species, which appears to be similar to that of human red-green colour blindness. Here, we show that dogs exhibit a behavioural response similar to that of red-green blind human subjects when tested with a modified version of a test commonly used for the diagnosis of human deuteranopia (i.e. the Ishihara's test). Besides contributing to increasing the knowledge about the perceptual ability of dogs, the present work describes for the first time, to our knowledge, a method that can be used to assess colour vision in the animal kingdom.

Keywords: behavioural method; colour vision; dog; physiology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

We declare we have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Ishihara plate no. 22 (Ishihara 38 plates for colour vision deficiency (CVD) test) and single frames used to edit, respectively, RG-Cat-2, RG-Cat-6 and B-Cat animations.

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Experimental setup and orienting response to different visual targets: (a) RG-Cat-6; (b) RG-Cat-2; (c) B-Cat.

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Achromatic stimuli: single frames used to edit respectively A-Cat-2 and A-Cat-6 animations.

Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Red–green colour-blind test: looking time (a) and score for alerting–targeting behaviour (b) during presentation of different coloured visual stimuli (means with s.e.m. are shown; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; Dunn's post hoc test).

Figure 5.

Figure 5.

Achromatic test: looking time (a) and score for alerting–targeting behaviour (b) during presentation of different achromatic visual stimuli (means with s.e.m. are shown; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; Dunn's post hoc test).

References

    1. Mowat FM, Petersen-Jones SM, Williamson H, Williams DL, Luthert PJ, Ali RR, Bainbridge JW. 2008. Topographical characterization of cone photoreceptors and the area centralis of the canine retina. Mol. Vis. 14, 2518–2527. -PMC -PubMed
    1. Mellersh CS, et al. 2006. Canine RPGRIP1 mutation establishes cone-rod dystrophy in miniature longhaired dachshunds as a homologue of human Leber congenital amaurosis. Genomics 88, 293–301. (doi:10.1016/j.ygeno.2006.05.004) -DOI -PubMed
    1. Aguirre G. 1978. Retinal degeneration in the dog: rod dysplasia. Exp. Eye Res. 26, 233–253. (doi:10.1016/0014-4835(78)90072-6) -DOI -PubMed
    1. Odom JV, Bromberg NM, Dawson WW. 1983. Canine visual acuity: retinal and cortical field potentials evoked by pattern stimulation. Am. J. Physiol. I. 245, R637–R641. -PubMed
    1. Guyton AC, Hall JE. 1999. Textbook of medical physiology, pp. 637–650. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Science.

LinkOut - more resources