Experimental Studies on Primate Locomotion

在过去的四十年里，许多研究收集了记录灵长类动物（猴子和猿）运动行为方面的经验数据。 其中一些研究的结果揭示了灵长类动物所表现出的四足动物的不寻常特征。 这反过来又导致了灵长类动物在诸如神经控制运动模式等方面与哺乳动物的独特性。 然而，主要是基于数据的蝗虫，这样的结论是不成熟的，没有可比的数据，原猴纲灵长类动物。 因此，拟议研究的目标是进行一系列关于原猴亚目灵长类动物运动行为方面的实验室研究，以补充目前稀疏的经验数据库，并允许与更好地记录的原猴亚目灵长类动物以及非灵长类哺乳动物的运动行为进行比较。 本研究将解决的具体问题包括四足行走过程中的肌肉招募模式的文件，并在Varecia variegata和Eulemur rubriventer四足跳跃过程中的底物反作用力分布的分析。 这项研究的结果将添加到一个不断增长的经验数据基础上灵长类动物运动行为，允许合法的结论，关于什么是或不是该命令的特点。 这些信息将有助于更准确地定义灵长类动物的含义，以及在该命令的起源及其最终的分散和多样化中涉及哪些因素。 斯托尼布鲁克灵长类动物运动实验室继续作为来自世界各地的学生和高级研究人员的主要资源。

Over the past forty years, many studies have collected empirical data documenting aspects of the locomotor behavior of anthropoid primates (monkeys and apes). The results of some of this research have revealed unusual characteristics in the form of quadrupedalism that primates display. This has in turn led to suggestions of distinctiveness in primates among mammals in such things as patterns of neural control of movement. However, based largely on data for anthropoids only, such conclusions are premature without comparable data on prosimian primates. The goals of the proposed study, therefore, are to undertake a set of laboratory based studies concerning aspects of locomotor behavior among prosimian primates in order to supplement the currently sparse empirical data base, and allow comparisons with the better-documented locomotor behavior of anthropoid primates as well as nonprimate mammals. The specific questions this study will address include documentation of patterns of muscle recruitment during quadrupedal walking, and analysis of substrate reaction force distribution during quadrupedal leaping in Varecia variegata and Eulemur rubriventer. The results of this research will add to a growing empirical data base on primate locomotor behavior, permitting legitimate conclusions regarding what is or isn't characteristic of the Order. Such information will contribute to a more precise definition of what it means to be a primate, and what factors were involved in the origins of the Order and its eventual dispersal and diversification. The Stony Brook Primate Locomotion Laboratory continues to serve as a major resource for student and senior researchers from around the world.