Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31924831›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2020

Polarization perception in humans: on the origin of and relationship between Maxwell's spot and Haidinger's brushes.

Gary P Misson, Shelby E Temple, Stephen J Anderson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Topological expansion of Boehm's brushes via structured light.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  2. Eye Dominance and Testing Order Effects in the Circularly-Oriented Macular Pigment Optical Density Measurements.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. The Clinical Application of Polarization Pattern Perception.Translational vision science & technology · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Gary P MissonSchool of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. g.misson@aston.ac.uk.
Shelby E TempleSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK.
Stephen J AndersonSchool of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK.
Aston University · GBUniversity of Bristol · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Under specific conditions of illumination and polarization, differential absorption of light by macular pigments is perceived as the entoptic phenomena of Maxwell's spot (MS) or Haidinger's brushes (HB). To simulate MS and HB, an existing computational model of polarization-dependent properties of the human macula was extended by incorporating neuronal adaptation to stabilized retinal images. The model predicted that polarized light modifies the appearance of MS leading to the perception of a novel phenomenon. The model also predicted a correlation between the observed diameters of MS and HB. Predictions were tested psychophysically in human observers, whose measured differences in the diameters of each entoptic phenomenon generated with depolarized and linearly polarized light were consistent with the model simulations. These findings support a common origin of each phenomenon, and are relevant to the clinical use of polarization stimuli in detecting and monitoring human eye disorders, including macular degeneration. We conclude: (i) MS and HB both result from differential light absorption through a radial diattenuator, compatible with the arrangement of macular pigments in Henle fibres; (ii) the morphology of MS is dependent on the degree of linear polarization; (iii) perceptual differences between MS and HB result from different states of neural adaptation.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultFemaleHumansLightMacula LuteaMaleMiddle AgedModels, TheoreticalPhotic StimulationRetinaRetinal PigmentsVision, EntopticYoung AdultRetinal Pigments

Identifiers

PMID31924831
PMCPMC6954220
OpenAlexW3000060477

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.