Low achromatic contrast sensitivity in birds : a common attribute shared by many phylogenetic orders
(2024) In The Journal of experimental biology 227(3).- Abstract
Vision is an important sensory modality in birds, which can outperform other vertebrates in some visual abilities. However, sensitivity to achromatic contrasts - the ability to discern luminance difference between two objects or an object and its background - has been shown to be lower in birds compared with other vertebrates. We conducted a comparative study to evaluate the achromatic contrast sensitivity of 32 bird species from 12 orders using the optocollic reflex technique. We then performed an analysis to test for potential variability in contrast sensitivity depending on the corneal diameter to the axial length ratio, a proxy of the retinal image brightness. To account for potential influences of evolutionary relatedness, we... (More)
Vision is an important sensory modality in birds, which can outperform other vertebrates in some visual abilities. However, sensitivity to achromatic contrasts - the ability to discern luminance difference between two objects or an object and its background - has been shown to be lower in birds compared with other vertebrates. We conducted a comparative study to evaluate the achromatic contrast sensitivity of 32 bird species from 12 orders using the optocollic reflex technique. We then performed an analysis to test for potential variability in contrast sensitivity depending on the corneal diameter to the axial length ratio, a proxy of the retinal image brightness. To account for potential influences of evolutionary relatedness, we included phylogeny in our analyses. We found a low achromatic contrast sensitivity for all avian species studied compared with other vertebrates (except small mammals), with high variability between species. This variability is partly related to phylogeny but appears to be independent of image brightness.
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- author
- Blary, Constance L.M. ; Duriez, Olivier ; Bonadonna, Francesco ; Mitkus, Mindaugas ; Caro, Samuel P. ; Besnard, Aurélien and Potier, Simon LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-02-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Axial length, Bird vision, Contrast sensitivity, Corneal diameter, Optocollic, Phylogeny
- in
- The Journal of experimental biology
- volume
- 227
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 11 pages
- publisher
- The Company of Biologists Ltd
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:38099472
- scopus:85184833777
- ISSN
- 1477-9145
- DOI
- 10.1242/jeb.246342
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 92846966-1712-4d39-b453-8fb8b0d9f106
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-22 15:30:45
- date last changed
- 2024-04-22 01:35:14
@article{92846966-1712-4d39-b453-8fb8b0d9f106,
abstract = {{<p>Vision is an important sensory modality in birds, which can outperform other vertebrates in some visual abilities. However, sensitivity to achromatic contrasts - the ability to discern luminance difference between two objects or an object and its background - has been shown to be lower in birds compared with other vertebrates. We conducted a comparative study to evaluate the achromatic contrast sensitivity of 32 bird species from 12 orders using the optocollic reflex technique. We then performed an analysis to test for potential variability in contrast sensitivity depending on the corneal diameter to the axial length ratio, a proxy of the retinal image brightness. To account for potential influences of evolutionary relatedness, we included phylogeny in our analyses. We found a low achromatic contrast sensitivity for all avian species studied compared with other vertebrates (except small mammals), with high variability between species. This variability is partly related to phylogeny but appears to be independent of image brightness.</p>}},
author = {{Blary, Constance L.M. and Duriez, Olivier and Bonadonna, Francesco and Mitkus, Mindaugas and Caro, Samuel P. and Besnard, Aurélien and Potier, Simon}},
issn = {{1477-9145}},
keywords = {{Axial length; Bird vision; Contrast sensitivity; Corneal diameter; Optocollic; Phylogeny}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
number = {{3}},
publisher = {{The Company of Biologists Ltd}},
series = {{The Journal of experimental biology}},
title = {{Low achromatic contrast sensitivity in birds : a common attribute shared by many phylogenetic orders}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246342}},
doi = {{10.1242/jeb.246342}},
volume = {{227}},
year = {{2024}},
}