title: Dynamic polarization vision in mantis shrimps.
abstract: Gaze stabilization is an almost ubiquitous animal behaviour, one that is required to see the world clearly and without blur. Stomatopods, however, only fix their eyes on scenes or objects of interest occasionally. Almost uniquely among animals they explore their visual environment with a series pitch, yaw and torsional (roll) rotations of their eyes, where each eye may also move largely independently of the other. In this work, we demonstrate that the torsional rotations are used to actively enhance their ability to see the polarization of light. Both Gonodactylus smithii and Odontodactylus scyllarus rotate their eyes to align particular photoreceptors relative to the angle of polarization of a linearly polarized visual stimulus, thereby maximizing the polarization contrast between an object of interest and its background. This is the first documented example of any animal displaying dynamic polarization vision, in which the polarization information is actively maximized through rotational eye movements.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
authors.forename: Ilse M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Daly
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: How
authors.affiliation: School of Animal Biology and the Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway (M317), Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
authors.forename: Julian C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Partridge
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
authors.forename: Shelby E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Temple
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: N Justin
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Cronin
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4540-6683
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003445:Crustacea; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D008027:Light; D012399:Rotation; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*