School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Faculty of Biology, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Laterality. 2021 Jan-Mar;26(1-2):106-129. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2020.1852245. Epub 2020 Nov 30.
The visual system and lifestyle characteristics make the even-toed ungulates an excellent model for the studies of behavioural lateralization. Recent research has focused on these mammals providing evidence of lateralization in a wide range of behaviours. This provides an opportunity for the collation of the current theoretical assumptions and the existing empirical evidence for visual lateralization in artiodactyls. In the present study, we aim first to gain a fuller picture of hemispheric specializations in saiga antelopes by investigating the lateralization of vigilance and novel object inspection in the wild. Second, we summarized the results of the research into visual lateralization in even-toed ungulates and attempted to assess the applicability of two popular hypotheses about the division of hemispheric roles. The results on saigas show a significant preference for head turns to the right visual field during vigilance which was more robust in individuals in larger groups. When an unfamiliar artificial object was placed in their natural setting, saigas preferentially viewed it predominantly with the right eye. These results, together with the cumulative evidence in artiodactyls, do not follow either the approach-withdrawal or positivity-negativity dichotomous patterns widely used to explain the division of functions between the hemispheres.
视觉系统和生活方式特征使偶蹄目动物成为研究行为侧化的理想模型。最近的研究集中在这些哺乳动物身上，为广泛的行为侧化提供了证据。这为偶蹄目动物视觉侧化的当前理论假设和现有经验证据的整理提供了机会。在本研究中，我们首先通过在野外研究警觉性和新物体检测来更全面地了解赛加羚羊的半球特化。其次，我们总结了偶蹄目动物视觉侧化研究的结果，并尝试评估两种关于半球角色划分的流行假设的适用性。赛加羚羊的研究结果显示，在警觉状态下，头部向右侧视野转动的偏好非常明显，而且在较大群体中的个体中更为明显。当一个陌生的人工物体被放置在它们的自然环境中时，赛加羚羊更倾向于用右眼优先观察它。这些结果与偶蹄目动物的累积证据都不符合广泛用于解释半球功能划分的接近-回避或正负二分模式。
