Central neural coding of sky polarization in insects.
(2011) In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1565). p.680-687- Abstract
- Many animals rely on a sun compass for spatial orientation and long-range navigation. In addition to the Sun, insects also exploit the polarization pattern and chromatic gradient of the sky for estimating navigational directions. Analysis of polarization-vision pathways in locusts and crickets has shed first light on brain areas involved in sky compass orientation. Detection of sky polarization relies on specialized photoreceptor cells in a small dorsal rim area of the compound eye. Brain areas involved in polarization processing include parts of the lamina, medulla and lobula of the optic lobe and, in the central brain, the anterior optic tubercle, the lateral accessory lobe and the central complex. In the optic lobe, polarization... (More)
- Many animals rely on a sun compass for spatial orientation and long-range navigation. In addition to the Sun, insects also exploit the polarization pattern and chromatic gradient of the sky for estimating navigational directions. Analysis of polarization-vision pathways in locusts and crickets has shed first light on brain areas involved in sky compass orientation. Detection of sky polarization relies on specialized photoreceptor cells in a small dorsal rim area of the compound eye. Brain areas involved in polarization processing include parts of the lamina, medulla and lobula of the optic lobe and, in the central brain, the anterior optic tubercle, the lateral accessory lobe and the central complex. In the optic lobe, polarization sensitivity and contrast are enhanced through convergence and opponency. In the anterior optic tubercle, polarized-light signals are integrated with information on the chromatic contrast of the sky. Tubercle neurons combine responses to the UV/green contrast and e-vector orientation of the sky and compensate for diurnal changes of the celestial polarization pattern associated with changes in solar elevation. In the central complex, a topographic representation of e-vector tunings underlies the columnar organization and suggests that this brain area serves as an internal compass coding for spatial directions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4464495
- author
- Homberg, Uwe ; Heinze, Stanley LU ; Pfeiffer, Keram ; Kinoshita, Michiyo and el Jundi, Basil LU
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 366
- issue
- 1565
- pages
- 680 - 687
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:79952321950
- pmid:21282171
- ISSN
- 1471-2970
- DOI
- 10.1098/rstb.2010.0199
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 66805acd-90cf-4115-92a3-10f8625f7ce5 (old id 4464495)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:36:00
- date last changed
- 2022-04-06 19:18:14
@article{66805acd-90cf-4115-92a3-10f8625f7ce5,
abstract = {{Many animals rely on a sun compass for spatial orientation and long-range navigation. In addition to the Sun, insects also exploit the polarization pattern and chromatic gradient of the sky for estimating navigational directions. Analysis of polarization-vision pathways in locusts and crickets has shed first light on brain areas involved in sky compass orientation. Detection of sky polarization relies on specialized photoreceptor cells in a small dorsal rim area of the compound eye. Brain areas involved in polarization processing include parts of the lamina, medulla and lobula of the optic lobe and, in the central brain, the anterior optic tubercle, the lateral accessory lobe and the central complex. In the optic lobe, polarization sensitivity and contrast are enhanced through convergence and opponency. In the anterior optic tubercle, polarized-light signals are integrated with information on the chromatic contrast of the sky. Tubercle neurons combine responses to the UV/green contrast and e-vector orientation of the sky and compensate for diurnal changes of the celestial polarization pattern associated with changes in solar elevation. In the central complex, a topographic representation of e-vector tunings underlies the columnar organization and suggests that this brain area serves as an internal compass coding for spatial directions.}},
author = {{Homberg, Uwe and Heinze, Stanley and Pfeiffer, Keram and Kinoshita, Michiyo and el Jundi, Basil}},
issn = {{1471-2970}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1565}},
pages = {{680--687}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{Central neural coding of sky polarization in insects.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0199}},
doi = {{10.1098/rstb.2010.0199}},
volume = {{366}},
year = {{2011}},
}