spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif Propose a Workshop for 2011 spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wehner, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wehner, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
The Journal of Experimental Biology 204, 2589-2596 (2001)
© 2001 The Company of Biologists Limited

Review

Polarization vision – a uniform sensory capacity?

Rüdiger Wehner*

Zoologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland

*e-mail: rwehner{at}zool.unizh.ch

Accepted April 19, 2001

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.

Key words: polarized light, underwater vision, e-vector compass, contrast enhancement, optical signalling, Cataglyphis spp.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
R. M. Glantz
Polarization analysis in the crayfish visual system
J. Exp. Biol., March 9, 2002; 204(14): 2383 - 2390.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
T. Labhart, J. Petzold, and H. Helbling
Spatial integration in polarization-sensitive interneurones of crickets: a survey of evidence, mechanisms and benefits
J. Exp. Biol., March 9, 2002; 204(14): 2423 - 2430.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2001