RAPID: Sensorimotor function in complex environments in a primate neuroanatomical model species

人类依靠视觉线索在复杂的地形上安全稳定地航行。该项目使用灵长类动物模型来研究早期灵长类动物进化过程中发生的视觉和运动适应如何塑造了在复杂环境中导航的策略。视觉和运动系统的主要进化转变发生在我们早期的树栖灵长类祖先身上。然而，目前尚不完全清楚具有类似于早期灵长类动物的视觉和运动系统的动物如何应对环境复杂性带来的特定感觉运动挑战。研究人员研究了灵长类动物如何在复杂的环境中移动，解决了与运动机制以及视觉凝视和脚的位置之间的空间关系有关的问题。这些发现有可能通过提供必要的数据来了解人类综合视觉和运动功能是如何进化的，从而为解决这些系统的功能障碍提供见解，从而造福社会。该项目还通过为本科生提供STEM学习和培训机会来提高教育水平。早期灵长类动物生活在一个不连续的、三维的、视觉受阻的、光照变化的树栖环境中，这给生物力学和视觉带来了巨大的挑战。运动、视觉适应和神经解剖学的比较研究表明，灵长类动物进化出了专门处理视觉信号的皮层，并且在运动过程中对肢体运动模式有相对更大的皮层控制，这些都是在具有挑战性的树木环境中面对生活的选择压力时发生的。然而，对于非人类灵长类动物如何在模仿自然栖息地复杂性的环境中生存，人们的理解有限。该项目解决了以下基本问题：1)灵长类动物如何在视觉和机械上具有挑战性的树木栖息地中移动？2)在人类身上观察到的视觉引导运动模式是否在灵长类动物进化的早期与其他视觉和运动适应一起出现？该项目包括收集夜间活动的链霉菌灵长类动物在复杂底物和不同光照条件下导航时的力、关节角度和凝视行为的数据。这个物种是一个合适的模型，因为它是一种广义的树栖四足动物，它的视觉系统很可能与最早的灵长类动物相似。该项目的研究结果可以促进非人类灵长类动物的对比实验数据和现有的神经解剖学数据的综合，以提高我们对人类综合视觉运动功能的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humans rely on visual cues to navigate complex terrain safely and stably. This project uses a primate model to investigate how visual and locomotor adaptations that occurred during early primate evolution shaped strategies for navigating complex environments. Major evolutionary transitions in both the visual and locomotor systems took place in our tree-dwelling early primate ancestors. However, it is not fully understood how animals with visual and locomotor systems similar to those of early primates approach specific sensorimotor challenges posed by environmental complexity. The investigators examine how primates move through complex environments by addressing questions related to the mechanics of movement as well as the spatial relationships between visual gaze and foot placement. The findings have the potential to benefit society by providing data necessary to understand how human integrated visual and motor function evolved, thus providing insights into addressing dysfunction in these systems. The project also enhances education by providing STEM learning and training opportunities for undergraduate students. Early primates inhabited a discontinuous, three-dimensional, visually obstructed, and variably illuminated arboreal habitat that posed substantial biomechanical and visual challenges. Comparative studies of locomotion, visual adaptations, and neuroanatomy have shown that primates evolved specialized cortical processing of visual signals, and relatively greater cortical control over patterns of limb movement during locomotion, all while facing the selective pressures of life in a challenging arboreal environment. However, there is limited understanding about how non-human primates navigate environments that mimic the complexity of the natural habitats in which these adaptations arose. This project addresses the following fundamental questions: 1) How do primates move through arboreal habitats that are visually and mechanically challenging? 2) Did the patterns of visually guided locomotion observed in humans emerge early in primate evolution along with other visual and locomotor adaptations? The project involves data collection on forces, joint angles, and gaze behavior during navigation of complex substrates and with varied light conditions in a nocturnal strepsirrhine primate. The species is an appropriate model because it is a generalized arboreal quadruped and its visual system is likely similar to that of the earliest primates. Results from this project can facilitate synthesis of comparative experimental data on non-human primates and existing neuroanatomical data to improve our understanding of integrated visuomotor function in humans.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.