Laterality Functional Asymmetry in the Intact Brain

1st Edition - September 28, 1982
Author: M Bryden
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 1 5 5 4 2 - 7

Laterality: Functional Asymmetry in the Intact Brain focuses on brain function and laterality as well as the various methods in assessing behavioral asymmetries, including… Read more

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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.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction

A Simplistic View of Cerebral Asymmetry

What Is Lateralized?

What Are the Mechanisms of Lateralization?

What Are the Origins of Lateralization?

Does It Make Any Difference How the Brain Is Organized?

Do People Habitually Use One Hemisphere?

2 Methods and Measurement in Laterality Studies

The Kimura Study

Approaches through the Visual System

Somatosensory Studies

Summary of Studies

Laterality Measures and Cerebral Function

3 Dichotic Listening and Auditory Lateralization

The Kimura Experiments

Word List Experiments

Single-Pair Studies

Is Dichotic Stimulation Necessary?

Nonverbal Studies

Some Concluding Remarks

4 Visual Laterality Effects

Verbal Laterality and Handedness

Verbal Stimulus or Verbal Task?

Nonverbal Effects

Dissociation of Verbal and Nonverbal Effects

Reaction Time Studies or Error Analysis?

Some General Comments on Visual Laterality Studies

5 Tactual Laterality Effects

6 Some General Considerations regarding Perceptual Laterality

Stimulus versus Task Factors

Attentional Bias as an Explanation of Perceptual Laterality

Lateralization as a Late Stage of Processing

What Is Lateralized?

7 Asymmetry of Motor Performance

Early Studies

Studies with Normal Subjects

8 Lateralization of Emotional Processes

Dichotic Listening Studies

Lateral Tachistoscopic Presentation

Lateralization of Emotional Expression

Clinical Observations on Lateralization of Emotion

Effects of Unilateral Brain Lesions

One Hemisphere or Both?

9 Physiological Measures of Asymmetry

Electroencephalographic Measures

Averaged Evoked Potentials

Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF)

Summary

10 Handedness and Its Relation to Cerebral Function

Hand Preference Measures

Performance Measures

Left-Handedness and Hemispheric Specialization

Eye Dominance

Other Lateralities

Conclusions

11 Genetics of Laterality

The Genetics of Cerebral Asymmetry

The Genetics of Handedness

Genetic Determination of Handedness

Genetic-Environmental Interaction

Laterality Arising from a Maturational Gradient

Laterality Arising from Perinatal Brain Damage

Inheritance of Degree of Laterality

The Evolution of Laterality

12 The Development of Cerebral Lateralization

Studies of Early Brain Damage

A Behavioral Study

Other Dichotic Listening Studies

Verbal Tachistoscopic Studies

Nonverbal Studies

Motor Asymmetries

Conclusions

13 Introduction to Individual Differences in Cerebral Organization

Evidence concerning Reversed Lateralization

An Experimental Approach to the Degree of Lateralization Question

Other Studies of Individual Differences in Patterns of Lateralization

Conclusions

14 Sex Differences in Laterality

Studies of Perceptual Asymmetry in Adults

Studies with Children

Effects of Brain Damage

Sex-Related Anatomical Differences

Conclusions

15 Reading and Language-Related Deficits

Reading

Reading and Dichotic Listening

Reading and Visual Laterality

Reading and Somatosensory Laterality

Reading and Handedness

Speculations on Reading and Lateralization

Laterality and Other Language-Related Deficits

So What Does It Mean?

16 Control of the Active Hemisphere

Lateral Eye Movements and Hemisphericity

Eye Movements and Cerebral Organization

Controlling the Active Hemisphere

17 Some Final Words

Isolating Strategy Effects

On Complementary Specialization

The Hemispheric Dichotomy

Where Are We Now?

References

Index