Functional similarities between polarization vision and color vision

Abstract

Consideration of the similarities between color vision (CV) and polarization vision (PV) [in invertebrates] leads to improved theoretical understanding of PV and to suggestions for new kinds of behavioral and electrophysiological experiments involving partially polarized light. It is proposed that angle and degree of polarization as parameters for a PV system are analogous to dominant wavelength and purity as parameters for a CV system. Although 3 linearly independent receptors must cooperate to determine polarizational angle independent of both degree and intensity, a PV system based on only 2 receptors is not polarization-blind but is characterized by neutral points and confusion states of polarization if the eye fixates.