Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.

In many animal phyla, eyes are small and provide only low-resolution vision for general orientation in the environment. Because these primitive eyes rarely have a defined image plane, traditional visual-optics principles cannot be applied. To assess the functional capacity of such eyes we have devel...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Mikael Ljungholm, Dan-E Nilsson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/07c7ac0273e846c9967f3c3120ff0448
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:07c7ac0273e846c9967f3c3120ff0448
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:07c7ac0273e846c9967f3c3120ff04482021-12-02T19:57:30ZModelling the visual world of a velvet worm.1553-734X1553-735810.1371/journal.pcbi.1008808https://doaj.org/article/07c7ac0273e846c9967f3c3120ff04482021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008808https://doaj.org/toc/1553-734Xhttps://doaj.org/toc/1553-7358In many animal phyla, eyes are small and provide only low-resolution vision for general orientation in the environment. Because these primitive eyes rarely have a defined image plane, traditional visual-optics principles cannot be applied. To assess the functional capacity of such eyes we have developed modelling principles based on ray tracing in 3D reconstructions of eye morphology, where refraction on the way to the photoreceptors and absorption in the photopigment are calculated incrementally for ray bundles from all angles within the visual field. From the ray tracing, we calculate the complete angular acceptance function of each photoreceptor in the eye, revealing the visual acuity for all parts of the visual field. We then use this information to generate visual filters that can be applied to high resolution images or videos to convert them to accurate representations of the spatial information seen by the animal. The method is here applied to the 0.1 mm eyes of the velvet worm Euperipatoides rowelli (Onychophora). These eyes of these terrestrial invertebrates consist of a curved cornea covering an irregular but optically homogeneous lens directly joining a retina packed with photoreceptive rhabdoms. 3D reconstruction from histological sections revealed an asymmetric eye, where the retina is deeper in the forward-pointing direction. The calculated visual acuity also reveals performance differences across the visual field, with a maximum acuity of about 0.11 cycles/deg in the forward direction despite laterally pointing eyes. The results agree with previous behavioural measurements of visual acuity, and suggest that velvet worm vision is adequate for orientation and positioning within the habitat.Mikael LjungholmDan-E NilssonPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Computational Biology, Vol 17, Iss 7, p e1008808 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Mikael Ljungholm Dan-E Nilsson Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
description	In many animal phyla, eyes are small and provide only low-resolution vision for general orientation in the environment. Because these primitive eyes rarely have a defined image plane, traditional visual-optics principles cannot be applied. To assess the functional capacity of such eyes we have developed modelling principles based on ray tracing in 3D reconstructions of eye morphology, where refraction on the way to the photoreceptors and absorption in the photopigment are calculated incrementally for ray bundles from all angles within the visual field. From the ray tracing, we calculate the complete angular acceptance function of each photoreceptor in the eye, revealing the visual acuity for all parts of the visual field. We then use this information to generate visual filters that can be applied to high resolution images or videos to convert them to accurate representations of the spatial information seen by the animal. The method is here applied to the 0.1 mm eyes of the velvet worm Euperipatoides rowelli (Onychophora). These eyes of these terrestrial invertebrates consist of a curved cornea covering an irregular but optically homogeneous lens directly joining a retina packed with photoreceptive rhabdoms. 3D reconstruction from histological sections revealed an asymmetric eye, where the retina is deeper in the forward-pointing direction. The calculated visual acuity also reveals performance differences across the visual field, with a maximum acuity of about 0.11 cycles/deg in the forward direction despite laterally pointing eyes. The results agree with previous behavioural measurements of visual acuity, and suggest that velvet worm vision is adequate for orientation and positioning within the habitat.
format	article
author	Mikael Ljungholm Dan-E Nilsson
author_facet	Mikael Ljungholm Dan-E Nilsson
author_sort	Mikael Ljungholm
title	Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
title_short	Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
title_full	Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
title_fullStr	Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
title_full_unstemmed	Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
title_sort	modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/07c7ac0273e846c9967f3c3120ff0448
work_keys_str_mv	AT mikaelljungholm modellingthevisualworldofavelvetworm AT danenilsson modellingthevisualworldofavelvetworm
_version_	1718375822454161408

Modelling the visual world of a velvet worm.

Ejemplares similares