ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Spectral discrimination in color blind animals via chromatic aberration and pupil shape.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Natural Habitat and Wild Behaviors of the Dwarf Cuttlefish,Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Visual contrast from background features and dynamic illumination contributes to three-dimensional camouflage in cuttlefish.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Advanced visual components inspired by animal eyes.Nanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · 2024Review
- The neural basis of visual processing and behavior in cephalopods.Current biology : CB · 2023Review
- Article
- 'Arm brains' (axial nerves) of Jurassic coleoids and the evolution of coleoid neuroanatomy.Swiss journal of palaeontology · 2023Article
- The Colours of Octopus: Using Spectral Data to Measure Octopus Camouflage.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Coloured filters can simulate colour deficiency in normal vision but cannot compensate for congenital colour vision deficiency.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Why Are We Scientists? Drawing Inspiration From Rita Levi-Montalcini.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2021Review
- Editorial: Vision in Cephalopods: Part II.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Sensorial Hierarchy inAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Diversity of Light Sensing Molecules and Their Expression During the Embryogenesis of the Cuttlefish (Frontiers in physiology · 2020Article
- The Pupillary Response of the Common Octopus (Frontiers in physiology · 2020Article
- The Eye of the Common Octopus (Frontiers in physiology · 2019Review
- Article
- The Current State of Cephalopod Science and Perspectives on the Most Critical Challenges Ahead From Three Early-Career Researchers.Frontiers in physiology · 2018Review
- Toward a Mechanistic Understanding of Color Vision in Insects.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2018Review
- Dynamic Skin Patterns in Cephalopods.Frontiers in physiology · 2017Article
- Cephalopods as Predators: A Short Journey among Behavioral Flexibilities, Adaptions, and Feeding Habits.Frontiers in physiology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We present a mechanism by which organisms with only a single photoreceptor, which have a monochromatic view of the world, can achieve color discrimination. An off-axis pupil and the principle of chromatic aberration (where different wavelengths come to focus at different distances behind a lens) can combine to provide "color-blind" animals with a way to distinguish colors. As a specific example, we constructed a computer model of the visual system of cephalopods (octopus, squid, and cuttlefish) that have a single unfiltered photoreceptor type. We compute a quantitative image quality budget for this visual system and show how chromatic blurring dominates the visual acuity in these animals in shallow water. We quantitatively show, through numerical simulations, how chromatic aberration can be exploited to obtain spectral information, especially through nonaxial pupils that are characteristic of coleoid cephalopods. We have also assessed the inherent ambiguity between range and color that is a consequence of the chromatic variation of best focus with wavelength. This proposed mechanism is consistent with the extensive suite of visual/behavioral and physiological data that has been obtained from cephalopod studies and offers a possible solution to the apparent paradox of vivid chromatic behaviors in color blind animals. Moreover, this proposed mechanism has potential applicability in organisms with limited photoreceptor complements, such as spiders and dolphins.
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