Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evolution of the Hominoid Striate and Extrastriate Visual Cortex

大脑皮层的大小和组织在人类和灵长类动物大脑进化的研究中发挥了基础作用。然而，关于现代人和近缘类人猿物种大脑皮层的信息很少。现代人类大脑皮质与常见灵长类动物猕猴大脑皮质的差异在很大程度上被神经科学所忽视，缺乏有用的比较数据。本论文的研究项目将研究参与视觉信息处理的功能不同、层级组织的大脑皮层区域。这些皮质区构成了视觉皮质，构成了灵长类大脑皮层最大的感觉域。我们将研究现代人、猿猴和东半球猴子的视觉区域。学生将使用现代显微解剖学技术，根据一致的定量和定性显微解剖学标准来识别和描述视觉区域。将为所调查的每个物种生成详细的皮质图。将对每个标本的视觉区域体积进行估计。研究过程中获得的数据将为进一步研究高级灵长类视觉皮质提供一个框架。关于大脑组织和行为的具体问题也将被讨论。例如，这项研究将检验这一假设，即人类谱系经历了分配给更高水平处理的视觉皮质比例的独特增加。新数据产生的重要更广泛的影响是：1)关于类人猿视觉皮质的信息将首次被提供；2)它们将使人类和猴子的视觉区域能够在系统发育的角度得到解释；3)这些数据将提高我们对现代人类视觉区域应该如何定义的理解。该项目创建的数据库，包括可视区域的图像和比较说明，将在网站上提供。来自不同领域的研究人员将能够利用这些信息在对高等灵长类大脑的研究中定位这些视觉区域。这些数据还将使确定特定皮质区域的基因图谱成为可能，然后将这些图谱在高等灵长类物种中进行比较。最后，该项目将通过使物理人类学家接受神经生物学实验室技术培训来鼓励跨学科科学。

The size and organization of the cerebral cortex has played a fundamental role in studies of human and primate brain evolution. Yet little information exists about the cerebral cortex in modern humans and closely related ape species. Differences between the modern human cortex and that of the usual primate model, the macaque, have largely been ignored by the neurosciences, and there is a dearth of useful comparative data.This dissertation research project will study functionally distinct, hierarchically organized, cerebral cortical areas involved in the processing of visual information. These cortical areas, which make up the visual cortex, comprise the largest sensory domain of the primate cerebral cortex. Visual areas will be investigated across modern humans, apes and Old World monkeys. The student will use modern microanatomical techniques to identify and describe visual areas according to consistent quantitative and qualitative microanatomical criteria. Detailed cortical maps will be generated for each species investigated. Visual area volumes will be estimated for each specimen. The data obtained during the course of the study will provide a framework for further research on the higher primate visual cortex. Specific questions about brain organization and behavior will also be addressed. For example, the study will test the hypothesis that the human lineage has experienced a unique increase in the proportion of visual cortex that is allocated to higher level processing.Important broader impacts of the new data generated here are 1) information about the visual cortices of apes will be made available for the first time, 2) they will enable human and monkey visual areas to be interpreted within a phylogenetic perspective, and, 3) the data will improve our understanding of how modern human visual areas should be defined. The database created by this project, including images and comparative descriptions of visual areas, will be made available on a website. Researchers from diverse fields will be able to use this information to locate these visual areas in studies of higher primate brains. These data will also make it possible to determine genetic profiles of specific cortical areas, and then compare these profiles across higher primate species. Finally, this project will encourage interdisciplinary science by enabling a physical anthropologist to become trained in neurobiological laboratory techniques.