Meeting Abstract

P1.102  Sunday, Jan. 4  Visual Performance is Lateralized in Male and Female Sceloporus undulatus Lizards WANG, D.*; NAVA, S. S.; MORENO, L.; MARTINS, E. P.; Indiana University and The Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Bloomington; Indiana University and The Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Bloomington; Indiana University and The Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Bloomington; Indiana University and The Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Bloomington dw3@indiana.edu

Behavioral laterality is the specialization of the left or right brain hemisphere in certain behaviors and functions. Many animals exhibit visual laterality and asymmetry during social interactions, foraging, and predator detection, i.e., the left and right eyes are used differentially for different tasks. For example, many animals show a left-eye bias during aggression and territorial contexts. While visual laterality has been shown to occur in many behavioral tasks and responses involving aggression, little is known whether the left and right eyes exhibit differential sensitivity, i.e., can one eye see better than the other? We measured and compared spectral sensitivity to the blue coloration exhibited by male Sceloporus undulatus lizards from both the left and right visual fields in adult male and female S. undulatus lizards. We found that left and right visual fields differ in spectral sensitivity and present here evidence for sex-specific variation of laterality. Specific results and data will be discussed.