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

人类依靠视觉线索来安全稳定地导航复杂的地形。该项目使用灵长类动物模型来研究在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居住在树上的早期灵长类祖先身上。然而，目前还不完全清楚具有与早期灵长类动物相似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。研究人员通过解决与运动机制以及视觉凝视和足部放置之间的空间关系有关的问题来研究灵长类动物如何在复杂的环境中移动。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中的功能障碍提供见解，从而使社会受益。该项目还通过为本科生提供STEM学习和培训机会来加强教育。早期的灵长类动物居住在一个不连续的，三维的，视觉上有障碍的，光线不足的树栖栖息地，这对生物力学和视觉提出了巨大的挑战。对运动、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的视觉信号皮层处理，以及对运动过程中肢体运动模式的相对更大的皮层控制，所有这些都是在充满挑战的树栖环境中面对生命的选择压力。然而，对于非人类灵长类动物如何在模仿这些适应性出现的自然栖息地的复杂性的环境中航行的理解有限。这个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都具有挑战性的树栖栖息地中移动？2)在人类身上观察到的视觉引导运动模式是否与其他视觉和运动适应沿着出现在灵长类进化的早期？该项目涉及在夜间链鼻灵长类动物中，在复杂基质和不同光照条件下导航期间的力，关节角度和凝视行为的数据收集。该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，其视觉系统可能与最早的灵长类动物相似。该项目的结果可以促进非人类灵长类动物的比较实验数据和现有神经解剖学数据的综合，以提高我们对人类综合视觉功能的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.