Professor Robert Barton r.a.barton@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Binocularity and brain evolution in primates
Barton, R.A.
Authors
Abstract
Primates are distinguished by frontally directed, highly convergent orbits, which are associated with stereoscopic vision. Although stereoscopic vision requires specialized neural mechanisms, its implications for brain evolution are unknown. Using phylogenetic comparative analysis, I show that evolutionary increases among primate taxa in the degree of orbital convergence correlate with expansion of visual brain structures and, as a consequence, with the overall size of the brain. This pattern is found across the whole primate order and is also repeated within each of the two major primate subtaxa. The visual expansion associated with increased binocularity is specific to the parvocellular visual pathway, consistent with recent evidence implicating this pathway in fine-grained stereopsis. The results support the hypothesis that brain size evolution in primates was associated with visual specialization.
Citation
Barton, R. (2004). Binocularity and brain evolution in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(27), 10113-10115. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0401955101
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Jul 1, 2004 |
Deposit Date | May 16, 2007 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0027-8424 |
Electronic ISSN | 1091-6490 |
Publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 101 |
Issue | 27 |
Pages | 10113-10115 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0401955101 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1600630 |
Publisher URL | http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/101/27/10113 |
You might also like
Measuring episodic memory and mental time travel: crossing the species gap
(2024)
Journal Article
The Brains and Bones Project: Using Embodied Teaching to Teach Embodiment
(2024)
Journal Article
Co-evolutionary dynamics of mammalian brain and body size
(2024)
Journal Article
A systematic review of sex differences in rough and tumble play across non-human mammals
(2022)
Journal Article
Understanding the human brain: insights from comparative biology
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search