RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Polarization vision – a uniform sensory capacity?
JF Journal of Experimental Biology
JO J. Exp. Biol.
FD The Company of Biologists Ltd
SP 2589
OP 2596
VO 204
IS 14
A1 Wehner, Rüdiger
YR 2001
UL http://jeb.biologists.org/content/204/14/2589.abstract
AB 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 χ (the angle of polarization), d (the degree of polarization) and λ (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.