Ryu, Heungjin, a Ph.D. student at the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, and researchers have discovered that the progression of presbyopia in the wild bonobo, the closest ape to humans, is very similar to that of humans.Until now, it has been pointed out that the abuse of the eyes in modern society, such as reading and writing, is the cause of presbyopia, but in reality it is not closely related to presbyopia, and it can be seen that it is a natural process of aging.
In this study, we compare with humans whether presbyopia, a well-known phenomenon of aging in the human body, is found in bonobos, and if so, how it progresses.In humans, the minimum distance between the eye and the target required to focus increases with age.This is because the distance required for focusing increases sharply around the age of 40 as the refractive power of the eyeball lens decreases.
The research group uses a digital camera and a tape measure to measure the length of the bonobo's ears, and uses this ear length to measure the distance between the eyes and fingers when the bonobo is repairing hair.Bonobos maintain a constant distance between their eyes and fingers when grooming, especially around the age of 40, when the distance increases significantly, and the progression of presbyopia in wild bonobos closely resembles the rate of progression of presbyopia in humans. I found that.This suggests that the rate of aging of human and bonobo eyes has not changed significantly from a common ancestor.
So far, there have been cases of presbyopia in wild chimpanzees, but this is the first study to quantitatively analyze this and compare it with humans.If aging of other body parts as well as the eyes occurs as well, it is likely that human longevity was not evolutionarily selected and was promoted by social and environmental factors. That is.The results of this research were published in the academic journal Current Biology on November 2016, 11 (US time).
