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Polarization Vision

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Definition

Polarization vision is the ability of animals to detect the oscillation plane of the electric field vector of light (E-vector) and use it for behavioral responses. This ability is widespread across animal taxa but is particularly prominent within invertebrates, especially arthropods. Polarized light can be either used implicitly for enhancing image contrast and for adding another dimension to the color vision system, or it can be explicitly used as a separate vision channel for communication purposes and for encoding global directions for an internal compass. Polarized light in nature is produced either by reflection at shiny surfaces or by scattering (e.g., in the atmosphere) of unpolarized sunlight. This results in the presence of polarized light in many different habitats, including underwater. The most prominent source of polarized light is the skylight polarization pattern, which contains information about the position of the sun in the sky and is thus used for...

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  1. Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 22362, Lund, Sweden

    Dr. Stanley Heinze

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  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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Heinze, S. (2014). Polarization Vision. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_334-5

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  1. Latest

    Polarization Vision
    Published:
    30 July 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_334-5

  2. Original

    Polarization Vision
    Published:
    07 February 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_334-4

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