Unihemispheric sleep in crocodilians?
| Autor: | Michael L. Kelly, Ryan K. Tisdale, Richard A. Peters, John A. Lesku |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Physiology media_common.quotation_subject Aquatic Science Audiology Biology Functional Laterality Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep medicine Animals Humans Juvenile Interhemispheric asymmetry Ocular Physiological Phenomena Molecular Biology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics media_common Alligators and Crocodiles Behavior Animal Anatomy Insect Science Laterality Animal Science and Zoology Sleep Eye closure Vigilance (psychology) |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Experimental Biology. 218:3175-3178 |
| ISSN: | 1477-9145 0022-0949 |
| DOI: | 10.1242/jeb.127605 |
| Popis: | Reduced vigilance is the conspicuous cost of sleep in most animals. To mitigate against this cost, some birds and aquatic mammals have evolved the ability to sleep with one-half of their brain at a time, a phenomenon known as unihemispheric sleep. During unihemispheric sleep the eye neurologically connected to the ‘awake’ hemisphere remains open while the other eye is closed. Such unilateral eye closure (UEC) has been observed across avian and non-avian reptiles, but has received little attention in the latter. Here, we explored the use of UEC in juvenile saltwater crocodiles (1) under baseline conditions, and in the presence of (2) other young crocodiles and (3) a human. Crocodiles increased the amount of UEC in response to the human, and preferentially oriented their open eye towards both stimuli. These results are consistent with observations on unihemispherically sleeping cetaceans and birds, and could have implications for our understanding of the evolution of unihemispheric sleep. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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