Brain Asymmetry

The twenty-three contributions in Brain Asymmetry provide a comprehensive survey of modern research on laterality and brain asymmetry, showcasing new approaches and novel domains in which knowledge of the asymmetrical functioning of the brain is a key issue for the complete understanding of the phenomenon. Of particular note is the inclusion of material on laterality, learning, attention, and emotion and their relation to subcortical and peripheral structures and processes. In addition, the clinical relevance of brain asymmetry for neuropsychological and psychopathological practice is surveyed.Following a preface and historical overview, chapters are divided into eight parts that cover: Phylogenetic Antecedents and Anatomical Bases; Perceptual, Cognitive, and Motor Lateralization; Attention and Learning; Central-Autonomic Integration; Emotional Lateralization; Interhemispheric Interaction; Ontogeny and Developmental Disabilities; and Psychopathology.Contributors : Marie T. Banich. Brenda E. Berge. Carol A. Boliek. Halle D. Brown. Gerard E. Bruder. Richard J. Davidson. Marian Cleeves Diamond. Jack E. Downhill. Jane E. Edmonds. Albert M. Galaburda. Josh Hall. Anne Harrington. Kenneth M. Heilman. Joseph B. Hellige. Kenneth Hugdahl. George W. Hynd. J. Richard Jennings. Stephen M. Kosslyn. Richard D. Laine. David Warren Lewis. Jacqueline Liederman. Mario Liotti. Richard Marshall. John E. Obrzut. Michael Peters. Robert G. Robinson. Sidney J. Segalowitz. Justine Sergent. Don M. Tucker. Werner Wittling. Eran Zaidel.A Bradford Book

Research on brain asymmetry, with particular emphasis on findings made possible by recent advances in neuroimaging.

Laterality: Functional Asymmetry in the Intact Brain focuses on brain function and laterality as well as the various methods in assessing behavioral asymmetries, including handedness. It reviews the literature on perceptual-cognitive laterality effects in different sensory modalities, the lateralization of emotion and motor behavior, and the electrophysiological evidence. It also highlights some of the problems with the existing research and offers suggestions about the direction of future research. Organized into 17 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of cerebral asymmetry and the origins and mechanisms of lateralization. Then, it discusses the individual differences in laterality, methods and measurement used in laterality studies, and experiments on dichotic listening and auditory lateralization. The next chapters focus on the link between verbal laterality and handedness, tactual and perceptual laterality, asymmetry of motor performance, lateralization of emotional processes, and physiological measures of asymmetry. The book also introduces the handedness and its relation to cerebral function, genetics of laterality, development of cerebral lateralization, individual differences in cerebral organization, sex differences in laterality, reading- and language-related deficits, and control of the active hemisphere before concluding with a chapter discussing the experimental or strategy effects, the concept of complementary specialization, and the dichotomy between the two hemispheres of the brain. This book is a valuable resource for neuropsychologists, experimental psychologists, neurologists, and educators interested in understanding human brain function.

Brain asymmetry for speech is moderately related to handedness but what are the rules? Are symmetries for hand and brain associated with characteristics such as intelligence, motor skill, spatial reasoning or skill at sports? In this follow up to the influential Left, Right Hand and Brain (1985) Marian Annett draws on a working lifetime of research to help provide answers to crucial questions. Central to her argument is the Right Shift Theory - her original and innovative contribution to the field that seeks to explain the relationships between left-and right-handedness and left-and right-brain specialisation. The theory proposes that handedness in humans and our non-human primate relations depends on chance but that chance is weighted towards right-handedness in most people by an agent of right-hemisphere disadvantage. It argues for the existence of a single gene for right shift (RS+) that evolved in humans to aid the growth of speech in the left hemisphere of the brain. The Right Shift Theory has possible implications for a wide range of questions about human abilities and disabilities, including verbal and non verbal intelligence, educational progress and dyslexia, spatial reasoning, sporting skills and mental illness. It continues to be at the cutting edge of research, solving problems and generating new avenues of investigation - most recently the surprising idea that a mutant RS+ gene might be involved in the causes of schizophrenia and autism. Handedness and Brain Asymmetry will make fascinating reading for students and researchers in psychology and neurology, educationalists, and anyone with a keen interest in why people have different talents and weaknesses.

Is "right-brain" thought essentially creative, and "left-brain" strictly logical? Joseph B. Hellige argues that this view is far too simplistic. Surveying extensive data in the field of cognitive science, he disentangles scientific facts from popular assumptions about the brain's two hemispheres. In Hemispheric Asymmetry, Hellige explains that the "right brain" and "left brain" are actually components of a much larger cognitive system encompassing cortical and subcortical structures, all of which interact to produce unity of thought and action. He further explores questions of whether hemispheric asymmetry is unique to humans, and how it might have evolved. This book is a valuable overview of hemispheric asymmetry and its evolutionary precedents.

Discusses brain asymmetry from four perspectives - function, evolution, development and causation - covering a wide range of species, including humans.

McManus considers evidence from anthropology, particle physics, the history of medicine, and the notebooks of Leonardo to answer questions like: Why are most people right-handed? Why does European writing go from left to right, while Arabic and Hebrew go from right to left? And how do we know that Jack the Ripper was left-handed?