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Symmetry
Special Issues
Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization
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Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Life Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 12183

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chiara Lucafò

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Interests: behavioral neuroscience
Dr. Daniele Marzoli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Interests: embodied cognition; social cognition; hemispheric lateralization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on behavioral and neural asymmetries has shown that many instances of lateralization may be affected by several individual differences. For example, it is well-known that neurodevelopmental disorders (among which those included in the autism spectrum) seem to be related to atypical patterns of lateralization. Patient with depression and anxiety disorders also exhibit abnormal lateralization. However, we point out that – even leaving aside disease-related conditions – specific laterality patterns can be linked to particular personal characteristics including, among others, sex, age, personality, sexual orientation and cognitive performance. Interestingly, the expression of various behavioral and neural asymmetries has been related to individual differences not only in humans but also in non-human species.

It should be noticed that current research is continuously unveiling further individual factors associated with specific patterns of behavioral (as regards motor, emotional, perceptual, attentional and other cognitive processes) and neural (as regards both anatomical and functional aspects) lateralization, which strongly suggests that many of them have yet to be identified. Obviously, a better understanding of the relationship between individual differences and behavioral and neural asymmetries would benefit both basic (e.g., in terms of the underlying mechanisms) and applied (e.g., in terms of diagnosis and treatment) research, and this Special Issue intends to promote such an endeavor. To this aim, we encourage the submission of both empirical and theoretical papers covering different topics (e.g., handedness, perception, attention, brain structure and functioning, genetics), different methods (e.g., behavioral, neuroimaging, meta-analytic) and different populations (e.g., human and non-human, clinical and non-clinical, young and elderly).

Dr. Chiara Lucafò
Dr. Daniele Marzoli
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. Symmetry 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 2400 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

  • behavioral lateralization
  • neural lateralization
  • individual differences
  • mental disorders
  • atypical lateralization
  • handedness
  • motor asymmetries
  • perceptual and attentional asymmetries
  • sex
  • age
  • personality
  • sexual orientation
  • cognitive performance
  • genetics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1169 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Influence of the Menstrual Cycle on Mental Rotation Abilities: A Comparative Analysis of Three-Dimensional vs. Two-Dimensional Tasks
by Ivana Hromatko and Meri Tadinac
Symmetry 2024, 16(2), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym16020172 - 01 Feb 2024
Viewed by 545
Abstract
The activational effects of sex hormones on spatial ability have been well documented. It has been suggested that these effects might be related to hormonally induced changes in interhemispheric communication. In this EEG study, we opted to explore menstrual cycle-related changes in the [...] Read more.
The activational effects of sex hormones on spatial ability have been well documented. It has been suggested that these effects might be related to hormonally induced changes in interhemispheric communication. In this EEG study, we opted to explore menstrual cycle-related changes in the efficacy of solving mental rotation tasks and laterality indices while participants were engaged with the tasks. We compared 2D and 3D mental rotation tasks, as they differ both psychometrically and in terms of lateralization. A group (n = 39) of healthy young women was tested twice, once during the mid-luteal (high estrogen and progesterone) and once during the early follicular (low levels of sex hormones) phase of menstrual cycle. The differences in power within the same frequency band on homologous sites of the left and right hemispheres were then calculated. Participants were faster, more accurate, and showed higher laterality scores when solving 3D mental rotation tasks in the early follicular phase compared to the mid-luteal phase. This indicates a higher lateralization of this specific spatial function when the levels of sex hormones are low. However, for 2D mental rotation tasks, participants showed neither shifts in efficacy nor in hemispheric laterality as a function of the menstrual cycle. This pattern of results provides further support for the notion that fluctuations in sex hormones affect laterality, and consequently, the expression of lateralized cognitive abilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization)
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10 pages, 1894 KiB  
Article
No Sex Differences in the Attentional Bias for the Right Side of Human Bodies
by Chiara Lucafò, Daniele Marzoli, Cosimo Ferrara, Maurizio Bertollo and Luca Tommasi
Symmetry 2023, 15(2), 466; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15020466 - 09 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1038
Abstract
Ambiguous silhouettes representing human individuals which perform unimanual actions are interpreted more often as right-handed. Such a preference might reflect a perceptual frequency effect, due to the fact that most social interactions occur with right-handers. As a consequence, observers would preferentially attend to [...] Read more.
Ambiguous silhouettes representing human individuals which perform unimanual actions are interpreted more often as right-handed. Such a preference might reflect a perceptual frequency effect, due to the fact that most social interactions occur with right-handers. As a consequence, observers would preferentially attend to the region in which others’ dominant hand usually falls, thus increasing the efficiency in monitoring both aggressive and communicative acts. Given that men can be more dangerous compared with women, the right-hand bias should be larger when observing male rather than female individuals, and given that aggressive interactions involve men more frequently than women, it should be larger in male rather than female observers. However, previous studies did not specifically test whether: (i) male—compared with female—observers pay more attention to the right side of others (regardless of the observed individuals’ sex), or (ii) observers (regardless of their sex) pay more attention to the right side of male—compared with female—individuals. Therefore, in the present study we used ambiguous human silhouettes rotating about their vertical axis with one arm extended in order to determine whether the rightward bias is larger for male rather than female figures and/or in male rather than female participants. According to our data, the bias toward the right side of human bodies was not significantly associated with either the figure’s or the participant’s sex. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization)
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18 pages, 1707 KiB  
Article
Lateral Bias in Visual Working Memory
by Ramunė Grikšienė, Rimante Gaizauskaite, Indre Pretkelyte and Markus Hausmann
Symmetry 2022, 14(12), 2509; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14122509 - 28 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1653
Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate functional cerebral asymmetries of visual working memory (VWM) in relation to language lateralization. The bilateral change detection paradigm with capital letters as stimuli and the translingual lexical decision task were used to assess VWM and language asymmetry, [...] Read more.
The present study aimed to evaluate functional cerebral asymmetries of visual working memory (VWM) in relation to language lateralization. The bilateral change detection paradigm with capital letters as stimuli and the translingual lexical decision task were used to assess VWM and language asymmetry, respectively, in a sample of 99 younger healthy participants (59 women). Participant attention was cued towards right or left visual half-field. For the VWM task, men and women were more accurate and faster when stimuli were presented in the right visual half-field compared to the left visual half-field. As expected, a significant right visual half-field advantage was demonstrated in the lexical decision task in performance accuracy (but not response time). The results also revealed no relationship between lateralization in VWM and lexical decision. VWM performance accuracy decreased significantly with increasing asymmetry. This relationship was significant for women, but not men. Taken together, the present study demonstrates that the lateral bias in visual working memory is independent from language lateralization, and less lateralized individuals perform better than individuals with larger asymmetries in both visual half-field tasks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization)
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Review

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20 pages, 1541 KiB  
Review
Why Are Most Humans Right-Handed? The Modified Fighting Hypothesis
by Matz Larsson, Astrid Schepman and Paul Rodway
Symmetry 2023, 15(4), 940; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15040940 - 19 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 8123
Abstract
Humans show a population-level preference for using the right hand. The fighting hypothesis is an influential theory that suggests that left-handedness persists because its rarity provides a surprise advantage in fighting interactions, and that left-handedness is less frequent because it has a health [...] Read more.
Humans show a population-level preference for using the right hand. The fighting hypothesis is an influential theory that suggests that left-handedness persists because its rarity provides a surprise advantage in fighting interactions, and that left-handedness is less frequent because it has a health cost. However, evidence for the health cost of left-handedness is unsubstantiated, leaving the greater frequency of right-handers unexplained. Research indicates that homicide may have been common in early hominins. We propose that the hand used to hold a weapon by early hominins could have influenced the outcome of a fight, due to the location of the heart and aorta. A left-handed unilateral grip exposes the more vulnerable left hemithorax towards an opponent, whereas a right-hand unilateral grip exposes the less vulnerable right hemithorax. Consequently, right-handed early ancestors, with a preference for using the right forelimb in combat, may have had a lower risk of a mortal wound, and a fighting advantage. This would explain their greater frequency. In accordance with the original fighting hypothesis, we also suggest that left-handed fighters have a surprise advantage when they are rare, explaining their persistence. We discuss evidence for the modified fighting hypothesis, its predictions, and ways to test the theory. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Individual Differences in Behavioral and Neural Lateralization)
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