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Modelling oil droplet absorption spectra and spectral sensitivities of bird cone photoreceptors

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Abstract

Birds have four spectrally distinct types of single cones that they use for colour vision. It is often desirable to be able to model the spectral sensitivities of the different cone types, which vary considerably between species. However, although there are several mathematical models available for describing the spectral absorption of visual pigments, there is no model describing the spectral absorption of the coloured oil droplets found in three of the four single cone types. In this paper, we describe such a model and illustrate its use in estimating the spectral sensitivities of single cones. Furthermore, we show that the spectral locations of the wavelengths of maximum absorbance (λmax) of the short- (SWS), medium- (MWS) and long- (LWS) wavelength-sensitive visual pigments and the cut-off wavelengths (λcut) of their respective C-, Y- and R-type oil droplets can be predicted from the λmax of the ultraviolet- (UVS)/violet- (VS) sensitive visual pigment.

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Abbreviations

α:

Absorptivity (naperian)

B mid :

Gradient of line tangent to absorbance spectrum at λmid

B(λ):

Derivative of T(λ)

c :

Oil droplet carotenoid pigment concentration

D(λ):

Measured absorptance

D max :

Maximum measured absorptance

D min :

Minimum measured absorptance

D 0 :

Real absorptance

l :

Length of light path

LWS:

Long-wavelength-sensitive

MWS:

Medium-wavelength-sensitive

MSP:

Microspectrophotometer

SWS:

Short-wavelength-sensitive

T(λ):

Transmittance

UVS:

Ultraviolet-sensitive

VS:

Violet-sensitive

λ:

Wavelength

λ0:

Wavelength at which oil droplet transmittance is 1/e

λcut:

Cut-off wavelength (oil droplets)

λmax:

Wavelength at maximum absorbance (visual pigments)

λmid:

Wavelength at half-maximum absorptance (oil droplets)

λs:

A wavelength shorter than the wavelengths at which the absorptivity of the oil droplet can be described by an exponential function

λT0.5:

Wavelength at 0.5 transmittance (ocular media)

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Acknowledgements

N.S.H was funded primarily by a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and partly by an NHMRC Project Grant awarded to David Vaney (UQ). M.V was also funded by the University of Queensland. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

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  1. Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Nathan S. Hart & Misha Vorobyev

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  1. Nathan S. Hart
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  2. Misha Vorobyev
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Correspondence to Nathan S. Hart.

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Hart, N.S., Vorobyev, M. Modelling oil droplet absorption spectra and spectral sensitivities of bird cone photoreceptors. J Comp Physiol A 191, 381–392 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0595-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0595-3

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