Perceiving polarization with the naked eye: characterization of human polarization sensitivity.
Perceiving polarization with the naked eye: characterization of human polarization sensitivity.
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2015.0338
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发表时间：
2015-07-22
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Roberts NW
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Temple SE;McGregor JE;Miles C;Graham L;Miller J;Buck J;Scott-Samuel NE;Roberts NW
像许多动物一样，人类对光的偏振很敏感。我们可以使用称为海丁格刷的内视现象来检测偏振角，该现象由黄斑中的二色性类胡萝卜素介导。虽然以前的研究已经表征了海丁格画笔的光谱灵敏度，但其他方面仍未探索。我们开发了一种新的方法来呈现光栅在不同程度的偏振，以测量人类偏振光检测的下限只有偏振对比度。平均而言，参与者能够完成任务的阈值为56%，有些人能够低至23%。这使得人类成为迄今为止测试过的最敏感的脊椎动物。此外，我们量化了一个非线性关系呈现和感知偏振角时，观察者提出了一个可旋转的偏振光场。这一结果证实了先前的理论预测，即单轴角膜双折射如何影响海丁格刷的感知。然后使用Haidinger刷的旋转动力学来计算角膜延迟。我们认为，心理物理学实验，偏振光的感知的基础上，适合生产负担得起的技术，自我评估和纵向监测的视觉功能障碍，如年龄相关性黄斑变性。
Like many animals, humans are sensitive to the polarization of light. We can detect the angle of polarization using an entoptic phenomenon called Haidinger's brushes, which is mediated by dichroic carotenoids in the macula lutea. While previous studies have characterized the spectral sensitivity of Haidinger's brushes, other aspects remain unexplored. We developed a novel methodology for presenting gratings in polarization-only contrast at varying degrees of polarization in order to measure the lower limits of human polarized light detection. Participants were, on average, able to perform the task down to a threshold of 56%, with some able to go as low as 23%. This makes humans the most sensitive vertebrate tested to date. Additionally, we quantified a nonlinear relationship between presented and perceived polarization angle when an observer is presented with a rotatable polarized light field. This result confirms a previous theoretical prediction of how uniaxial corneal birefringence impacts the perception of Haidinger's brushes. The rotational dynamics of Haidinger's brushes were then used to calculate corneal retardance. We suggest that psychophysical experiments, based upon the perception of polarized light, are amenable to the production of affordable technologies for self-assessment and longitudinal monitoring of visual dysfunctions such as age-related macular degeneration.