Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:49:38.237Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spectral sensitivity of cones in an ungulate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Jay Neitz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
Gerald H. Jacobs
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

Ungulates have been classified as having arrhythmic eyes in the sense that they contain features appropriate both to diurnal and nocturnal life. The former is typically associated with multiple classes of cones and a color-vision capacity. To see if an arrhythmic animal has these features, the number of cone classes was determined and the spectra of these cones were measured in a common ungulate, the domestic pig (Sus scrofa). Examination with electroretinogram (ERG) flicker photometry revealed the presence of two classes of cones in the pig's eye having average maximum sensitivity (λmax) at 439 nm and 556 nm, respectively. This ungulate thus has the requisite retinal basis for dichromatic color vision.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilar, M. & Stiles, W.S. (1954). Saturation of the rod mechanism of the retina at high levels of stimulation. Optica Acta 1, 5965.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawis, S.M. (1981). Polynomial expressions of pigment nomograms. Vision Research 21, 14271430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebrey, T.G. & Honig, B. (1977). New wavelength-dependent visualpigment nomograms. Vision Research 17, 147151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, A. (1977). The topography of vision in mammals of contrasting life styles: Comparative optics and retinal organization. In Handbook of Sensory Physiology Vol. VII/5, ed. Crescitelli, F., pp. 615756. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Jacobs, G.H. (1981). Comparative Color Vision. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, G.H. (1984). Within-species variations in visual capacity among squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus): Color vision. Vision Research 24, 12671277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, G.H. & Neitz, J. (1985). Spectral positioning of mammalian cone pigments. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 1, P23.Google Scholar
Jacobs, G.H. & Neitz, J. (1986 a). Spectral sensitivity of cat cones to rapid flicker. Experimental Brain Research 62, 446448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, G.H. & Neitz, J. (1986 b). Spectral mechanisms and color vision in the tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri). Vision Research 26, 291298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, G.H. & Neitz, J. (1987). Inheritance of color vision in a New World monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. 84, 25452549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klopfer, F.D. (1966). Visual learning in swine. In Swine in Biomedical Research, ed. Bustad, L.K. & McClellan, R.O., pp. 559574. Seattle: Battelle Memorial Institute.Google Scholar
Miller, W.H. & Snyder, A.W. (1977). The tiered vertebrate retina. Visual Research 17, 239255.Google ScholarPubMed
Neitz, J. & Jacobs, G.H. (1984). Electroretinogram measurements of cone spectral sensitivity in dichromatic monkeys. Journal of the Optical Society of America A 1, 11751180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, J.H., Diesem, C.D., Eglitis, I. & Ruskell, G.L. (1960). Anatomy and Histology of the Eye and Orbit in Domestic Animals. Springfield, Illinois: C. C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Walls, G.L. (1942). The Vertebrate Eye and Its Adaptive Radiation. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: The Cranbrook Institute of Science.Google Scholar