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Brain Sciences
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Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization
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Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Developmental Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2024 | Viewed by 4736

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sonia Crottaz-Herbette

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
Interests: cognition; brain injury; neurorehabilitation; visual neglect; neuroimaging; functional MRI; DSI; resting state fMRI; EEG
Dr. Olga Boukrina

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Kessler Foundation, West Orange, NJ, USA
2. Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA
Interests: functional and structural neuroimaging; stroke; neural networks; spatial cognition; language; brain connectivity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Brain lateralization refers to the major involvement of one hemisphere of the brain in certain cognitive functions. It first became an important research topic in the mid-19th century with the identification of the Broca's area and the dominant involvement of the left hemisphere in language processing. Later, work in spatial neglect, a cognitive disorder characterized by a failure to orient, attend, or represent one side of space, suggested that the right hemisphere may be dominant for spatial attention. With the advent of modern neuroscience methods, research has refined these conclusions, showing that the two hemispheres are, in fact, closely linked and work together in complex ways. Moreover, lateralization in adult brains is not fixed and unchangeable and modulations or shifts of hemispheric lateralization can be triggered, for example, by daily experiences, experimental factors, or by brain injury. One esoteric but intriguing question is the potential lateralization in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and artificial neural networks. In AI, rather than demonstrating the traditional physical hemispheric lateralization, research may show built-in or emergent modularity, with specialized components for particular functions. While AI offers only an approximate model of the brain, it may help to explain patterns of behavior observed with brain injuries and serve as a test bed for the degree to which hemispheric lateralization is malleable following simulated injury and model retraining.

Thus, the focus of the current Special Issue is state-of-the-art research on human brain lateralization. Using modern neuroscience, artificial neural networks, and brain imaging methods, our aim is to revisit characteristics of brain lateralization, and its multiple roles in cognitive functions of both adult and pediatric populations.

Dr. Sonia Crottaz-Herbette
Dr. Olga Boukrina
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • brain lateralization
  • left hemisphere
  • right hemisphere
  • hemispheric specialization
  • plasticity
  • brain injury
  • development
  • artificial neural network

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1145 KiB  
Article
An Analysis of the Correlation between the Asymmetry of Different EEG-Sensor Locations in Diverse Frequency Bands and Short-Term Subjective Well-Being Changes
by Betty Wutzl, Kenji Leibnitz and Masayuki Murata
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(3), 267; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14030267 - 11 Mar 2024
Viewed by 813
Abstract
We focus on finding a correlation between the asymmetries of electroencephalography (EEG) signals and subjective well-being (SWB) when changed on short time scales via environmental conditions. Most research in this field focuses on frontal alpha asymmetry. We systematically examine different sensor locations and [...] Read more.
We focus on finding a correlation between the asymmetries of electroencephalography (EEG) signals and subjective well-being (SWB) when changed on short time scales via environmental conditions. Most research in this field focuses on frontal alpha asymmetry. We systematically examine different sensor locations and filter the sensor data into the delta band, the theta band, the alpha band, the beta band, and the gamma band, or leave the EEG signal unfiltered. We confirm that frontal alpha asymmetry is correlated to SWB. However, asymmetries between other sensors and/or filtering the data to other bands also shows a linear correlation to SWB values. Asymmetries of anterior brain regions show statistically significant results not only in the alpha band but also in the delta band and theta band, or when the data is not filtered into a specific band. Asymmetries of posterior regions show a trend to be correlated to SWB when EEG activity is higher on the opposite hemisphere and filtered into different frequency bands. Thus, our results let us conclude that focusing just on frontal sensors and the alpha band might not reveal the whole picture of brain regions and frequency bands involved in SWB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization)
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11 pages, 1428 KiB  
Article
Auditory Cortex Asymmetry Associations with Individual Differences in Language and Cognition
by Mark A. Eckert, Kenneth I. Vaden, Jr. and Silvia Paracchini
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14010014 - 23 Dec 2023
Viewed by 832
Abstract
A longstanding cerebral lateralization hypothesis predicts that disrupted development of typical leftward structural asymmetry of auditory cortex explains why children have problems learning to read. Small sample sizes and small effects, potential sex-specific effects, and associations that are limited to specific dimensions of [...] Read more.
A longstanding cerebral lateralization hypothesis predicts that disrupted development of typical leftward structural asymmetry of auditory cortex explains why children have problems learning to read. Small sample sizes and small effects, potential sex-specific effects, and associations that are limited to specific dimensions of language are thought to have contributed inconsistent results. The large ABCD study dataset (baseline visit: N = 11,859) was used to test the hypothesis of significant associations between surface area asymmetry of auditory cortex and receptive vocabulary performance across boys and girls, as well as an oral word reading effect that was specific to boys. The results provide modest support (Cohen’s d effect sizes ≤ 0.10) for the cerebral lateralization hypothesis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization)
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14 pages, 1252 KiB  
Article
Learning by Heart or with Heart: Brain Asymmetry Reflects Pedagogical Practices
by Martin Schetter, David Romascano, Mathilde Gaujard, Christian Rummel and Solange Denervaud
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(9), 1270; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13091270 - 31 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1545
Abstract
Brain hemispheres develop rather symmetrically, except in the case of pathology or intense training. As school experience is a form of training, the current study tested the influence of pedagogy on morphological development through the cortical thickness (CTh) asymmetry index (AI). First, we [...] Read more.
Brain hemispheres develop rather symmetrically, except in the case of pathology or intense training. As school experience is a form of training, the current study tested the influence of pedagogy on morphological development through the cortical thickness (CTh) asymmetry index (AI). First, we compared the CTh AI of 111 students aged 4 to 18 with 77 adults aged > 20. Second, we investigated the CTh AI of the students as a function of schooling background (Montessori or traditional). At the whole-brain level, CTh AI was not different between the adult and student groups, even when controlling for age. However, pedagogical experience was found to impact CTh AI in the temporal lobe, within the parahippocampal (PHC) region. The PHC region has a functional lateralization, with the right PHC region having a stronger involvement in spatiotemporal context encoding, while the left PHC region is involved in semantic encoding. We observed CTh asymmetry toward the left PHC region for participants enrolled in Montessori schools and toward the right for participants enrolled in traditional schools. As these participants were matched on age, intelligence, home-life and socioeconomic conditions, we interpret this effect found in memory-related brain regions to reflect differences in learning strategies. Pedagogy modulates how new concepts are encoded, with possible long-term effects on knowledge transfer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization)
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Review

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23 pages, 612 KiB  
Review
Epigenome Defines Aberrant Brain Laterality in Major Mental Illnesses
by Hamid Mostafavi Abdolmaleky, Shabnam Nohesara and Sam Thiagalingam
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(3), 261; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14030261 - 07 Mar 2024
Viewed by 968
Abstract
Brain-hemisphere asymmetry/laterality is a well-conserved biological feature of normal brain development. Several lines of evidence, confirmed by the meta-analysis of different studies, support the disruption of brain laterality in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive [...] Read more.
Brain-hemisphere asymmetry/laterality is a well-conserved biological feature of normal brain development. Several lines of evidence, confirmed by the meta-analysis of different studies, support the disruption of brain laterality in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and autism. Furthermore, as abnormal brain lateralization in the planum temporale (a critical structure in auditory language processing) has been reported in patients with SCZ, it has been considered a major cause for the onset of auditory verbal hallucinations. Interestingly, the peripheral counterparts of abnormal brain laterality in mental illness, particularly in SCZ, have also been shown in several structures of the human body. For instance, the fingerprints of patients with SCZ exhibit aberrant asymmetry, and while their hair whorl rotation is random, 95% of the general population exhibit a clockwise rotation. In this work, we present a comprehensive literature review of brain laterality disturbances in mental illnesses such as SCZ, BD, ADHD, and OCD, followed by a systematic review of the epigenetic factors that may be involved in the disruption of brain lateralization in mental health disorders. We will conclude with a discussion on whether existing non-pharmacological therapies such as rTMS and ECT may be used to influence the altered functional asymmetry of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, along with their epigenetic and corresponding gene-expression patterns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Brain Lateralization)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Dual representation of the auditory space: contribution of early stage auditory areas
Author: Clarke
Highlights: - - Auditory spatial cues contribute to: i) explicit localization of sounds and ii) position-linked representation of sound objects - Activation and lesion studies demonstrated right-hemispheric lateralization for explicit sound localization - AEP, fMRI and lesion studies revealed left- hemispheric lateralization for implicit, position-linked sound representation - Differential encoding of explicit vs. implicit auditory-space representations occurs within early-stage auditory areas

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