Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: 3-D Modeling of Lung Volume from Thoracic Form: A Geo-Morphometric Baseline for the Study of Thoracic Patterning in the Human Fossil Record

自上个世纪后半叶以来，伯格曼规则一直是一个有效的假设，在这个假设下，尼安德特人颅骨后解剖的大多数方面都得到了解释。因此，尼安德特人著名的桶状胸腔在历史上被认为是为了在最后一次冰川高峰期间以热量的形式保存能量。然而，气候并不是影响胸型的唯一因素。运动方式、肺健康和活动模式以及其他相关动力学可能影响整体胸廓廓形。尽管强调生态地理学的解释，但很少有人尝试定量评估人属中不同物种的胸部大小和形状变化的适应意义。此外，我们对现代胸廓几何的重要方面及其与生活人群中通风、能量学和气候适应的关系的理解仍然存在重大差距。因此，本研究考察了活人骨骼胸廓形状和呼吸变量之间的三维关系，以促进我们对胸廓形状变化如何影响肺输出量的理解。为了测试胸骨形状对呼吸变量（例如，总肺活量、功能剩余容量等）的影响，研究人员将在50名呼吸正常受试者和10名慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）推定为桶状胸部的混合性别计算机断层扫描（CT）样本中量化胸部形态学的变化，所有受试者年龄在20至60岁之间（最初根据IRB: 199708651收集）。然后将这个同质的活体CT样本的结果与来自最近人类变异极端（n=134）的区域异质性混合性别骨骼样本以及更完整的尼安德特人标本Kebara 2， Tabun C1， Shanidar 3和La Chapelle进行比较，以估计呼吸变量。该分析将通过在两个样本的轴向骨架以及肋软骨（活样本）上使用三维几何标志来实现，以表征个体肋骨曲率和整体胸部几何形状，并结合活样本的肺功能测试变量。这项研究独特地整合了临床和人类学方法，以解决临床医生广泛研究的问题。从这项研究中获得的结果将为现代和化石人类胸部适应的未来研究提供基线。此外，由于胸部发育与肺容量/通气相关；透彻理解这一关系对于治疗与生活人群中胸发育异常（如强直性脊柱炎、重度脑瘫、脊髓性肌萎缩、胸壁重建等）、肺/胸协调性差（如慢性阻塞性肺病）和/或肺移植相关的问题至关重要。这种与临床和解剖学研究的联系在生物人类学和古人类学中是至关重要的。明确地将这些互补的学科联系起来，可以更好地了解人类的多样性，这对学术界和应用人类学家都有好处。

Since the last half of the past century, Bergmann's Rule has been the working hypothesis under which most aspects of Neandertal postcranial anatomy have been explained. Consequently, the Neandertal's reputed barrel-shaped thorax has been historically viewed as responsive to the need to conserve energy in the form of heat during the height of the last glacial maximum. However, climate is not the only factor that may affect thoracic patterning. Mode of locomotion, pulmonary fitness and activity patterns, as well as other related dynamics may have affected the overall thoracic bauplan. Despite the emphasis placed on ecogeographical explanations, few attempts have been made to quantitatively assess the adaptive significance of variation in chest size and shape across species within the genus Homo. Furthermore, critical gaps remain in our understanding of important aspects of modern thoracic geometry and its relation to ventilation, energetics, and climatic adaptation within living populations. Accordingly, this study examines the three dimensional relationships between skeletal thoracic form and respiratory variables in living humans to advance our understanding of how variation in thoracic form impact pulmonary output. To test the influence of skeletal thoracic shape on respiratory variables (e.g., total lung capacity, functional residual capacity, etc.) investigators will quantify variation in thoracic morphology within a mixed-sex computed tomography (CT) sample of 50 respiratorily normal subjects and 10 subjects with putative barrel-shaped chests from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), all between the ages of 20 and 60 (originally collected under IRB: 199708651). Results from this homogenous, living CT sample will then be compared to a regionally heterogeneous, mixed-sex skeletal sample from the extremes of recent human variation (n=134), as well as the more complete Neandertal specimens Kebara 2, Tabun C1, Shanidar 3, and La Chapelle, in order to estimate respiratory variables. This analysis will be achieved through the use of three dimensional geometric landmarks on the axial skeleton of both samples, as well as the costochondral cartilages (in the living sample) in order to characterize individual rib curvature and overall thoracic geometry, in conjunction with lung function test variables from the living sample.This study uniquely integrates clinical and anthropological methodologies to address issues that have been studied extensively by clinicians. The results obtained from this study will provide a baseline for future studies of modern and fossil human thoracic adaptation. Moreover, since thoracic development and pulmonary capacity/ventilation are associated; a thorough understanding of this relationship is crucial to treating problems associated with abnormal thoracic development in living populations (e.g., ankylosing spondylitis, severe cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, chest wall reconstruction, etc.), poor lung/thoracic concordance (such as is the case in COPD) and/or lung transplantation. This connection to clinical and anatomical studies is crucial in biological anthropology and paleoanthropology. Explicitly bridging these complimentary disciplines provides a greater appreciation of human variation that benefits both academics and applied anthropologists alike.