Primate Info Net

[What's New] [Search] [IDP] [WDP] [Meetings] [AV] [Primate-Jobs] [Careers] [PrimateLit] [AskPrimate] [Index]

Books Received
Primate-Science / PrimateLit


TTHE ASYMMETRICAL BRAIN

Edited by
Kenneth Hugdahl and Richard J. Davidson

The MIT Press, 2003

The folk belief that the left brain hemisphere is dominant for language and 
the right for visuospatial functions is incomplete and even 
misleading.  Research shows that asymmetries exist at all levels of the 
nervous system and apply to emotional as well as to higher cognitive 
processes. Going beyond their previous book, Brain Asymmetry, this book 
reflects the most recent thinking on functional asymmetries and their 
structural correlates in brain anatomy. It emphasizes research using new 
neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques such as magnetic resonance 
imaging (MRI and fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), 
magnetoencephalography (MEG, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). 
It also considers clinical applications of asymmetry research. The book 
contains seven sections: animal models and basic functions, neuroimaging 
and brain stimulation studies, visual laterally, auditory laterality, 
emotional laterally, neurological disorders, and psychiatric disorders.

Kenneth Hugdahl is Professor of Biological and Medical Psychology at the 
University of Bergen,Norway.  Ridhard J. Davidson is the William James and 
Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of 
Wisconsin. They are coeditors of Brain Asymmetry (MIT Press, 
1994).  Davidson is also coeditor of Foundations in Social Neuroscience 
(MIT Press, 2001).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface    ix

I.  ANIMAL MODELS / BASIC FUNCTIONS    1

1.  Hemispheric Asymmetry in the Visual System of Birds    3
Onur Gunturkun

2.  A Hippocampal Theory of Cerebral Lateralization    37
Akaysha C. Tang

3.  Stress and Coping: Asymmetry of Dopamine Efferents within the 
Prefrontal Cortex    69
Craig W. Berridge, Rodrigo A. Espana, and Thomas A. Staluaker

4.  The Nature and Determinants of Handedness    105
Alan A. Beaton

II.  NEUROIMAGING AND BRAIN STIMULATION STUDIES    159

5.  Characterizing Functional Asymmetries with Brain Mapping    161
Karl J. Friston

6.  Anatomical Brain Asymmetries and Their Relevance for Functional 
Asymmetries    187
Lutz Jancke and Helmuth Steinmetz

7.  Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies of Asymmetry of Cognitive 
Functions in the Brain    231
Alvaro Pascual-Leone and Vincent Walsh

III.  VISUAL LATERALITY    259

8.  Interaction between the Hemispheres and Its Implications for the 
Processing Capacity of the Brain    261
Marie T. Banich

9.  Asymmetries in Encoding Spatial Relations    303
Bruno Laeng, Christopher F. Chabris, and Stephen M. Kosslyn

10.  Complexities of Interhemispheric Communication in Sensorimotor Tasks 
Revealed by High-Density Event-Related Potential Mapping    341
Clifford D. Saron, John J. Foxe, Charles E. Schroeder, and Herbert G. 
Vaughan, Jr.

IV.  AUDITORY LATERALITY    409

11.  Hemispheric Asymmetries in the Processing of Tonal Stimuli    411
Robert J. Zatorre

12.  Dichotic Listening in the Study of Auditory Laterality    441
Kenneth Hugdahl

13.  Effects of Attention on Hemispheric Asymmetry    477
Daniel S. O'Leary

V.  EMOTIONAL LATERALITY    509

14.  The Functional Neuroimaging of Human Emotion: Asymmetric Contributions 
of Cortical and Subcortical Circuitry    511
Diego Pizzagalli, Alexander J. Shackman, and Richard J. Davidson

15.  Regional Brain Activity in Anxiety and Depression, Cognition/Emotion 
Interaction, and Emotion Regulation    533
Wendy Heller, Nancy S. Koven, and Gregory A. Miller

16.  The State and Trait Nature of Frontal EEG Asymmetry in Emotion    565
James A. Coan and John J. B. Allen

VI.  NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS    617

17.  Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum    619
Maryse Lassonde and Hannelore C. Sauerwein

18.  Developmental Disorders: Dyslexia    651
Mark A. Eckert and Christiana M. Leonard

19.  Structural Correlates of Brain Asymmetry: Studies in Left-Handed and 
Dyslexic Individuals    681
Michel Habib and Fabrice Robichon

VII.  PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS    717

20.  Frontal and Parietotemporal Asymmetries in Depressive Disorders: 
Behavioral, Electrophysiologic, and Neuroimaging Findings    719
Gerard E. Bruder

21.  The Laterality of Schizophrenia    743
Michael F. Green, Mark J. Sergi, and Robert S. Kern

Contributors    773
Author Index    777
Subject Index    793

PREFACE

In April 1999, at the Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting in Washington, D.C., 
MIT Press representative Michael Rutter asked one of us (KH) if it was not 
about time to publish a second edition of Brain Asymmetry, which had been 
published by MIT Press in 1995. Had not the field progressed since 1995, so 
that it was now time for an update, or even a new book based on the most 
recent research in the field of brain asymmetry? On his way home to Bergen, 
Norway, Kenneth Hugdahl stopped over in Madison, Wisconsin, to meet with 
Richard Davidson, the other editor of the first book. Davidson agreed that 
indeed the field had progressed during the years since the first volume; 
thus a new volume could be an important update of the most recent findings 
in the field. That was the start of this volume, which is a completely new 
book on brain asymmetry, with 21 original chapters.

In the preface to the 1995 volume we wrote, "We cannot identify any other 
construct that forms the focus of such a diverse array of behavioral 
processes. The study of brain asymmetry continues to attract unique forms 
of integration in the biobehavioral sciences." The mysteries of the two 
hemispheres of the brain, how they differ functionally and structurally, 
how they communicate, and how they participate in the cortical and 
subcortical circuitry underlying complex cognition and affect still 
fascinate and interest young and old neuroscientists. What we wrote in 1995 
about the diverse array of behavioral processes being reflected in the 
asymmetry construct is no less relevant today than it was in 1995. To 
mention just one example, the development of new neuroimaging 
techniques-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission 
tomography (PET), and magnetoencepaholograpy (MEG)-have revealed how 
neuronal activation is asymmetrically organized and distributed across the 
hemispheres, providing evidence for how the asymmetry construct becomes 
ever more refined and detailed. This topic was not included in the 1995 
volume but has a part of its own in the present volume. Another topic that 
has been the focus of much recent research is the use of high-resolution 
structural MR imaging to reveal subtle morphological differences between 
the hemispheres. Thus, it has become possible to look for correspondences 
of structural and functional asymmetries between the hemispheres. Most of 
the interest has been in the upper posterior parts of the temporal lobe and 
adjacent areas in the parietal lobe. Both the planum temporale and the 
planum parietale, in the temporal and parietal lobes, respectively, have 
attracted much interest, relating structural-functional asymmetries in 
these areas to such diverse clinical syndromes as dyslexia and 
schizophrenia. This is covered in several chapters in the present volume.

A goal of the present volume has been to show the international interest in 
brain asymmetry and related concepts. We hope this is reflected in the 
various contributions, with authors from the United States, Canada, United 
Kingdom, Germany, France, and Norway.

Folk psychology statements like "The left hemisphere is specialized, or 
dominant, for language, and the right hemisphere is specialized, or 
dominant, for visuospatial functions, or space orientation" obviously tell 
an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, story. First of all, such 
statements imply that the brain basically is specialized only for two 
functions, language and the ability to orient in the environment. Second, 
they imply that half the brain does only language and the other half does 
only visual processing. This also is obviously wrong. On the contrary, a 
prevailing aspect of research throughout the history of brain asymmetry is 
the notion that asymmetries exist at all levels of the nervous system, 
including also the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems. Another 
prevailing idea is that asymmetries exist not only for higher cognitive 
processes, like language and visuospatial processing, but also for 
emotional processes. A third aspect is that recent advances in methods have 
made it possible to quantify structural asymmetries with much greater 
precision and resolution than was available previously. This has resulted 
in new theories and models of how functional asymmetries may have their 
structural correlates in brain anatomy. A fourth aspect is the development 
of the new neuroimaging techniques, both hemodynamic techniques (e.g., PET 
and flMRI) and other techniques (ERP [event-related potential], MEG, and 
transcranial magnetic stimulation [TMS]). A fifth aspect of recent 
asymmetry research is its application to clinical areas with regard to 
psychiatric, neurological, and developmental disorders. It is our intention 
to cover all these ideas and developments as a reflection of the current 
status of the field, from both a basic research and a clinical perspective.

In selecting the contributors, it was our intention to focus on relatively 
recent and new topics as well as a few older topics where there have been 
new developments since 1995. Selecting the contributors therefore meant, as 
always, that not all prominent researchers in the field could be invited. 
This would have made the volume unwieldy. We have therefore chosen to 
present the field through a mixed selection of chapters ranging from basic 
physiological processes on the neuronal level to major clinical disorders 
like schizophrenia and depression. When inviting the selected authors, it 
was our intention to include promising and novel ideas in the field, with 
potential for possible breakthroughs in the near future. For these reasons 
the book is divided into seven major parts that include animal models of 
asymmetry and basic asymmetrical functions (e.g., handedness), neuroimaging 
studies, visual asymmetry, auditory asymmetry, emotional asymmetry, and 
applications for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Each part has two 
or more chapters that are intended to illustrate the range of methods and 
research topics within each area that is represented.



WHERE TO ORDER:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The MIT Press
5 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142-1493

Contact: Patrick Dunn
Phone: (617) 258-0676
Email: pdunn@mit.edu

General Phone: (800) 405-1619
General Email: mitpress-orders@mit.edu
Website: http://mitpress.mit.edu


ISBN: 0-262-08309-4
Price: $90 (Cloth)


Posted Date:   5/28/2003 

URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/review/AsymmetricalBrain.html
Page last modified: May 29, 2003
Maintained by the WPRC Library

PIN Home | Search PIN