These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Neurobiology of polarization vision.
    Author: Wehner R.
    Journal: Trends Neurosci; 1989 Sep; 12(9):353-9. PubMed ID: 2480677.
    Abstract:
    Insects can perceive the pattern of polarized light (e-vector pattern) in the sky and use it as a compass. To accomplish this navigational task they employ a specialized part of the retina in which the polarization analysers (ultraviolet receptors) are arranged in a way that mimics, by and large, the distribution of e-vector directions in the sky. By sweeping this 'matched polarization filter's across the sky, the insect translates the complex spatial information provided by the celestial e-vector patterns into rather simple temporal modulations of summed receptor outputs. This mechanism provides a striking example of peripheral coding by matched filtering in sensory systems.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]