Color vision in the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).
Behavioral discrimination tests were used to examine spectral sensitivity and color vision in a pair of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Sensitivity tests revealed the presence of a Purkinje shift and a photopic visual system. As measured at increment-threshold, the photopic spectral sensitivity function for the lemur has multiple peaks (at ca. 440-460, 540, and 620 nm). In color vision tests lemurs behave trichromatically in that (a) they show no evidence for a neutral point in the spectral range of 470-510 nm, and (b) they set a unique Rayleigh match (540 nm + 645 nm = 570 nm). Tests of wavelength and colorimetric purity discrimination reveal that although this prosimian has color vision, it is not an acute capacity--thresholds for these color discriminations were consistently much higher for lemurs than for normal human trichromats tested in the same situation.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003119:Color Perception Tests / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007900:Lemur / Q000502:physiology*; D007901:Lemuridae / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011594:Psychometrics; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology