Agility and the Position of Eyes


An interesting study has been conducted at Liverpool University, and the results appear in the latest addition of the Journal of Anatomy. The team of researchers wanted to investigate whether a mammal traveling at considerable speeds were advantaged or disadvantaged by the position of their eye canals. The team investigated frontal eyed mammals, e.g. humans and cats alongside lateral-eyed ones including mammals like rabbits.

One of the researchers, Dr Nathan Jeffery, explains that each mammal has the ability to pick things up at a high speed. For example, a footballer is running at a fast pace whilst tracking the football; a bit like a cheetah would when hunting for prey. Their study looked into the complex system of what is called the vestibulo-ocular reflex which involves the use of three canals of fluid which are found around the skull at each side. These canals of fluid detect the movement of the head left, right, up or down (each canal being specific to each of these movements) and this will then send a signal to the brain, which in turns signals to muscles that control the eyeball, allowing the eye to remain fixed on the object whilst the head is moving. The study therefore examined whether or not there was a particular point in which the brain became unable to process this information, e.g. if the mammal was traveling at too much speed; which could thus be related to the position of their eyes.

Using MRI scans, the researchers investigated the position of the eye canals in the mammals but surprisingly found that the position of these had no effect on whether the mammal could see the things at a high speed. Therefore meaning that a Chihuahua, if able to travel at the same speed of a Cheetah, would not suffer any blurring of vision whilst running at high speeds.

25th February 2010

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