Polarization vision--a uniform sensory capacity?
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.
Wehner
R
R
Zoologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland. rwehner@zool.unizh.ch
D000388:Air; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003463:Cues; D004777:Environment; D008027:Light; D008954:Models, Biological; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014867:Water
D014867:Water