Regan B C, Julliot C, Simmen B, Viénot F, Charles-Dominique P, Mollon J D
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
Vision Res. 1998 Nov;38(21):3321-7. doi: 10.1016/s0042-6989(97)00462-8.
It is a long-standing hypothesis that primate trichromacy evolved to help fruit-eating primates find fruits amongst leaves. We measured the reflectance spectra of fruits eaten by a trichromatic primate, Alouatta seniculus, in the rainforest of French Guiana, as well as those of the leaves that form the natural background to fruits. We develop a method of specifying these natural colour signals in a chromaticity diagram appropriate for A. seniculus. By treating the task facing frugivorous monkeys as a signal detection task, we show that the spectral tuning of the L and M cone pigments in A. seniculus is optimal for detecting fruits amongst leaves.
长期以来的一种假说认为，灵长类动物的三色视觉进化是为了帮助以水果为食的灵长类动物在树叶中找到果实。我们测量了圭亚那雨林中一种三色灵长类动物——白喉卷尾猴所食用果实的反射光谱，以及构成果实自然背景的树叶的反射光谱。我们开发了一种方法，在适合白喉卷尾猴的色度图中指定这些自然颜色信号。通过将食果猴子面临的任务视为信号检测任务，我们表明白喉卷尾猴中L和M视锥色素的光谱调谐对于在树叶中检测果实是最优的。
