I think it's interesting how the brain takes in stimuli and then tries to rationalize the electrical impulses it receives.
For example, did you know that pink is a made up color (1)? There is no wavelength corresponding to the color we interpret as pink. The brain makes up the color pink to explain the combination of wavelengths it sees.
I wonder what other features of consciousness we hallucinate into existence to explain the electrical signals in our brains.
This doesn't surprise me. It's the brain simply trying to make sense of the world around it. Especially in a confusing world where we see "green" on the grass, but in reality the grass is every color BUT green. It reflects it away, and that's what our eyes capture.
I think the surprising part of pink is that it's not physical. Green can be mapped to a single wavelength of a photon. Pink cannot be mapped to any wavelength and is only the combination.
More precisely, wavelength is 2-dimensional but most people see color as 3-dimensional. Our brain invented that extra dimension out of utility. Some people can even see color in 4-dimensions (1).
This happens with physical sensations as well. A few examples (may cause some discomfort):
I think you might be mis-extrapolating what that article talks about in terms of dimensions. She's not seeing in 4 dimensions. They used the term "dimensions" to mean something more like "more characteristics of color" than others can detect. They're not referring to dimensions like I think you are trying to infer.
I'm sorry if I was unclear. I do not mean physical dimensions. I mean dimensions of color.
Since most people have three color receptors (rgb), we see color as a three dimensional object. Think of the color cube.
Since she has an additional color receptor, the object to describe how she sees color is 4-dimensional. In other words, most people can see all combinations of 3 colors. She can see all combinations of 4 colors.
This is fascinating to me, actually, because not only am I a photographer, but I'm also colorblind to a degree. I'm referred to as red/green colorblind, but that's not what I experience. My trouble is between green and brown. For example, I can't tell what's brown or green in camo. I can tell both are there, but that's my mind convincing me both are there because I know they should be. To me they just look like different shades of the same brown.
Or green. Dammit I don't know which one it is.
Well you might like this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
You might also checkout http://enchroma.com/shop/ I'm not sure if they work for every type of color blindness and they are pretty expensive but it'd be cool if they worked for you.