Selective binocular vision loss in two subterranean caviomorph rodents: Spalacopus cyanus and Ctenomys talarum.

ABSTRACT: To what extent can the mammalian visual system be shaped by visual behavior? Here we analyze the shape of the visual fields, the densities and distribution of cells in the retinal ganglion-cell layer and the organization of the visual projections in two species of facultative non-strictly subterranean rodents, Spalacopus cyanus and Ctenomys talarum, aiming to compare these traits with those of phylogenetically closely related species possessing contrasting diurnal/nocturnal visual habits. S. cyanus shows a definite zone of frontal binocular overlap and a corresponding area centralis, but a highly reduced amount of ipsilateral retinal projections. The situation in C. talarum is more extreme as it lacks of a fronto-ventral area of binocular superposition, has no recognizable area centralis a

SUBMITTER: Vega-Zuniga T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5288697 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature