Polarization vision--a uniform sensory capacity?

J Exp Biol. 2001 Jul;204(Pt 14):2589-96. doi: 10.1242/jeb.204.14.2589.

Abstract

In this concept paper, three scenarios are described in which animals make use of polarized light: the underwater world, the water surface and the terrestrial habitat vaulted by the pattern of polarized light in the sky. Within these various visual environments, polarized light is used in a number of ways that make quite different demands on the neural circuitries mediating these different types of behaviour. Apart from some common receptor and pre-processing mechanisms, the underlying neural mechanisms may differ accordingly. Often, information about chi (the angle of polarization), d (the degree of polarization) and lambda (the spectral content) might not --and need not--be disentangled. Hence, the hypothesis entertained in this account is that polarization vision comes in various guises, and that the answer to the question posed in the title is most probably no.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air
  • Animals
  • Ants / physiology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Cues
  • Environment
  • Light*
  • Models, Biological*
  • Photic Stimulation / methods
  • Vision, Ocular / physiology*
  • Water

Substances

  • Water