Chapter category: Development
A Role of Functional Brain Asymmetry in Human Adaptation
Behavioural and Morphological Asymmetries
in Vertebrates
Edited by: Yegor B. Malashichev and A. Wallace DeckelISBN: 1-58706-105-8
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «
Chapter authors:
Elena I. Nikolaeva and Vitaly P. Leutin
In the present review the data on distribution of individuals with different sensory and motor asymmetric characteristics are discussed. A joint index that more completely profiles functional sensorimotor asymmetry (i.e., a right- or left-side preference or absence of this preference for the use of hands, feet, eyes and ears) is proposed. It is shown that pronounced variations in asymmetry profiles can be found in different geographical regions. For example, there are a large number (40%) of individuals with the left and symmetrical profiles among the natives of the Far North (the Selkups) compared to the population living in Novosibirsk (19%). The population of Selkups also showed extraordinary low concentrations of cholesterol and cortisol in comparison with Russians. Individuals with the left asymmetry profiles (leading left hand, foot, eye and ear) were found to have a lower incidence of myocardial infarction. Inhalation of a gas mixture to induce hypoxia (10% oxygen and 90% nitrogen) produced more significant increase in the linear blood flow in the left-handed healthy subjects compared to that in subjects with the right profile. It is suggested that in extreme conditions, the best adaptation is characteristic of people with a left asymmetry profile. In this case the adaptation is achieved due to simultaneous activation of both hemispheres. Finally, in individuals with a right asymmetry profile who are under extreme conditions, activation of the left hemisphere is followed by increasing activity of the right hemisphere. We hypothesize that this finding might ultimately result in a failure of the central mechanisms of vegetative regulation.
Additional chapters from this book:
Is There a Link between Visceral and Neurobehavioral Asymmetries in Development and Evolution?
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Relation of Behavioral Asymmetry to the Functions of Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal and Reproductive Systems in Vertebrates
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It is well known that the cerebral hemispheres are involved in the regulation of motor systems and modulation of perceptual cues coming from the contralateral side of the body, and unilateral mo...
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Living organism as an opened nonequillibrium thermodynamic system posesses many properties, which permit to evade the “heat death”. An analysis of these properties permit to imagine the genera...
Lateralization of Spatial Orientation in Birds
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Research on the specific role of the left and the right brain hemispheres during spatial orientation in birds is of great interest for several reasons. After it has become clear that lateralizat...
A Role of Functional Brain Asymmetry in Human Adaptation
Elena I. Nikolaeva and Vitaly P. Leutin
In the present review the data on distribution of individuals with different sensory and motor asymmetric characteristics are discussed. A joint index that more completely profiles functional ...
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The domestic chick constitutes an excellent animal model for the investigation of the lateralization of brain functions possibly underlying a variety of perceptual and cognitive abilities. In pa...
Development of Vertebrate Brain Asymmetry Under Normal and Space Flight Conditions
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We investigated the effects of spaceflight on the development of right-left brain asymmetry in larvae of amphibians (Xenopus laevis) and in pups and embryos of mammals (Rattus norvegicus). Here we...
The Evolution of Behavioural and Brain Asymmetries: Bridging Together Neuropsychology and Evolutionary Biology
Giorgio Vallortigara
The evidence for brain and behavioural lateralization in human and nonhuman species is reviewed and discussed in an evolutionary perspective. It is stressed that current theories of the evolution ...
Lateralized Visual Processing in Anurans: New Vistas through Ancient Eyes
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The study of visual processing in anurans is of particular importance as the visual system of modern Amphibia is most similar to that possessed by the first tetrapods.1 Anuran vision is the one of...
Functional Asymmetry in Hematopoietic, Immune and Nervous Systems
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We report a series of three experiments that suggest that hemispheric dominance for paw preference is related to asymmetries in peripheral physiology. First, we report that bone marrow cells taken f...
The Epigenetic Control of Asymmetry Formation: Lessons from the Avian Visual System
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Although lateralization is a core feature of information processing of vertebrate brains, there is no model which can explain how ontogenetic mechanisms lead to an adult asymmetric functional arch...
An Eye for a Predator: Lateralization in Birds, with Particular Reference to the Australian Magpie
Lesley J. Rogers and Gisela Kaplan
Avian species with their eyes placed laterally on the sides of their head show eye preferences for viewing stimuli at a distance, as determined by the angle of the head adopted when they use the monoc...
Symmetry Breaks in Early Development of Multicellular Organisms Instabilities and Morphomechanics
Lev V. Beloussov*
The development of all animal embryos is accompanied by several symmetry breaks which transform a spherically symmetric oocyte into a body, characterized by polarity, dorso-ventrality, left-right an...
Cognitive and Social Advantages
Lesley Rogers
Of the many examples of lateralization in vertebrates some are expressed at the individual level only (i.e., not aligned in the population) and others at both the individual and population level. This...
