Doctoral Disseration Improvement: The Role of Binocular Vision in Primate Evolution

大多数脊椎动物的左右视野都有一些重叠。重叠的区域，即双眼视野，包含独特的视觉线索，提供对距离和三维形状的准确估计。动物可能会使用这些线索来指导行为，这一事实对灵长类动物进化的研究有几个有趣的暗示。虽然有大量的数据表明，许多动物感知双目信号，但很少有证据表明双目信息在生态相关行为中是有利的。确定双眼线索有用的条件将是回答为什么大多数动物都有双眼视觉以及为什么灵长类动物有如此广泛的重叠区域的第一步。这个项目测试了双眼信息是否对抓取比到达更有用，以及双眼线索是否只在需要高度精确的任务中有用。运动学分析将用于评估去除双目线索对两种灵长类动物、两种有袋动物和两种食肉动物在简单运动、精确到达和精确抓取三种情况下的运动的影响。这些运动学数据将用于评估实用假设，即双目视野与动物进行视觉引导运动的空间区域相关。实践假说有可能将不同物种的眼睛取向与行为生态学联系起来。更具体地说，它为灵长类起源的理论提供了一个近似的解释，如夜间视觉捕食假说和细枝树栖假说。除了对灵长类动物进化研究的重要性之外，这个项目还将产生更广泛的社会影响。它将通过让杜克大学的学生参与数据收集和分析，鼓励本科生参与科学研究。此外，该项目的成果将通过大学课程和当地学校和科学博物馆的公共教育纳入学术水平的教学。

Most vertebrates possess some overlap of the right and left visual fields. The region of overlap, the binocular field, contains unique visual cues that provide an accurate estimate of distance and three-dimensional shape. The fact that animal's might use these cues to guide behavior has several interesting implications to the study of primate evolution. While there is an abundance of data suggesting that many animals perceive binocular cues, there is little evidence demonstrating binocular information is advantageous during ecologically relevant behaviors. Determining the conditions under which binocular cues are useful will be a first step in answering why most animals have binocular vision and why primates in particular have such a wide region of overlap. This project tests whether binocular information is more useful for grasping than reaching, and whether biocular cues are only useful in tasks requiring a high degree of precision. Kinematic analyses will be used to evaluate the effect of removing binocular cues on the locomotion of two primates, two marsupials, and two carnivorans in three conditions, simple locomotion, precision reaching, and precision grasping. These kinematic data will be used to evaluate the praxic hypothesis, the idea that the binocular field is correlated with the region of space over which animals make visually guided movements. The praxis hypothesis has the potential to relate eye orientation to behavioral ecology in a diverse array of species. More specifically, it provides a proximate explanation for theories of primate origins such as the nocturnal visual predation hypothesis and fine-branch arboreal hypothesis.In addition to its importance for studies of primate evolution this project will have a more general societal impact. It will encourage undergraduate participation in science by involving Duke students in data collection and analysis. Additionally, the results of this project will be included in teaching at both an academic level through college courses and public education at local schools and science museums.