High resolution of colour vision, but low contrast sensitivity in a diurnal raptor
(2018) In Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285.- Abstract
- Animals are thought to use achromatic signals to detect small (or distant) objects and chromatic signals for large (or nearby) objects. While the spatial resolution of the achromatic channel has been widely studied, the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel has rarely been estimated. Using an operant conditioning method, we determined (i) the achromatic contrast sensitivity function and (ii) the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel of a diurnal raptor, the Harris's hawk Parabuteo unicinctus The maximal spatial resolution for achromatic gratings was 62.3 c deg-1, but the contrast sensitivity was relatively low (10.8-12.7). The spatial resolution for isoluminant red-green gratings was 21.6 c deg-1-lower than that of the... (More)
- Animals are thought to use achromatic signals to detect small (or distant) objects and chromatic signals for large (or nearby) objects. While the spatial resolution of the achromatic channel has been widely studied, the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel has rarely been estimated. Using an operant conditioning method, we determined (i) the achromatic contrast sensitivity function and (ii) the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel of a diurnal raptor, the Harris's hawk Parabuteo unicinctus The maximal spatial resolution for achromatic gratings was 62.3 c deg-1, but the contrast sensitivity was relatively low (10.8-12.7). The spatial resolution for isoluminant red-green gratings was 21.6 c deg-1-lower than that of the achromatic channel, but the highest found in the animal kingdom to date. Our study reveals that Harris's hawks have high spatial resolving power for both achromatic and chromatic vision, suggesting the importance of colour vision for foraging. By contrast, similar to other bird species, Harris's hawks have low contrast sensitivity possibly suggesting a trade-off with chromatic sensitivity. The result is interesting in the light of the recent finding that double cones-thought to mediate high-resolution vision in birds-are absent in the central fovea of raptors. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/21ebe5ee-81ec-49ed-969d-3e4b932daa83
- author
- Potier, Simon LU ; Mitkus, Mindaugas LU and Kelber, Almut LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-08-29
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- colour vision, contrast sensitivity, foraging, raptors, spatial resolution
- in
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 285
- article number
- 20181036
- pages
- 7 pages
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85065548538
- pmid:30158305
- ISSN
- 1471-2954
- DOI
- 10.1098/rspb.2018.1036
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 21ebe5ee-81ec-49ed-969d-3e4b932daa83
- date added to LUP
- 2019-03-12 09:49:08
- date last changed
- 2024-05-14 03:46:54
@article{21ebe5ee-81ec-49ed-969d-3e4b932daa83,
abstract = {{Animals are thought to use achromatic signals to detect small (or distant) objects and chromatic signals for large (or nearby) objects. While the spatial resolution of the achromatic channel has been widely studied, the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel has rarely been estimated. Using an operant conditioning method, we determined (i) the achromatic contrast sensitivity function and (ii) the spatial resolution of the chromatic channel of a diurnal raptor, the Harris's hawk Parabuteo unicinctus The maximal spatial resolution for achromatic gratings was 62.3 c deg-1, but the contrast sensitivity was relatively low (10.8-12.7). The spatial resolution for isoluminant red-green gratings was 21.6 c deg-1-lower than that of the achromatic channel, but the highest found in the animal kingdom to date. Our study reveals that Harris's hawks have high spatial resolving power for both achromatic and chromatic vision, suggesting the importance of colour vision for foraging. By contrast, similar to other bird species, Harris's hawks have low contrast sensitivity possibly suggesting a trade-off with chromatic sensitivity. The result is interesting in the light of the recent finding that double cones-thought to mediate high-resolution vision in birds-are absent in the central fovea of raptors.}},
author = {{Potier, Simon and Mitkus, Mindaugas and Kelber, Almut}},
issn = {{1471-2954}},
keywords = {{colour vision; contrast sensitivity; foraging; raptors; spatial resolution}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{High resolution of colour vision, but low contrast sensitivity in a diurnal raptor}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1036}},
doi = {{10.1098/rspb.2018.1036}},
volume = {{285}},
year = {{2018}},
}