Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 6, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
On Random and Systematic Variation in the Prevalence of Defective Color Vision
1School of Mathematics and Statistics FO7, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract:
Defective color vision comes in various forms and its frequency varies from population to population. This article is concerned with only the sex-linked form of essential hereditary color blindness. A model of a 'small' population is constructed to explore the dynamics of occurrence of color blindness. Different mutation rates are introduced for eggs and sperm. Birth and death rates of affected individuals are assumed to be the same as those in the unaffected. Simulation demonstrates that large changes in frequency occur randomly from the combined effects of mutation, transmission of genes from generation to generation and births and deaths. A reference is made to the hypothesis that observed differences in rates are due to selection in the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer.
Related Concept Videos
Color Vision
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways
Genetic Lingo
X-linked Traits
Genetic Variation
Genes exist in different versions called alleles,...
Random and Systematic Errors

