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 the authors' 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 sections on animal models and basic functions, neuroimaging and brain stimulation studies, visual laterality, auditory laterality, emotional laterality, neurological disorders, and psychiatric disorders.
I Animal Models/Basic Functions 1
1 Hemispheric Asymmetry in the Visual System of Birds
Onur G?t?k?
2 A Hippocampal Theory of Cerebral Lateralization
Akaysha C. Tang 37
3 Stress and Coping: Asymmetry of Dopamine Efferents within the Prefrontal Cortex
Craig W. Berridge, Rodrigo A. Espana and Thomas A. Stalnaker 69
4 The Nature and Determinants of Handedness
Alan A. Beaton 105
II Neuroimaging and Brain Stimulation Studies 159
5 Characterizing Functional Asymmetries with Brain Mapping
Karl J. Friston 161
6 Anatomical Brain Asymmetries and Their Relevance for Functional Asymmetries
Lutz J?cke and Helmuth Steinmetz 187
7 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies of Asymmetry of Cognitive Functions in the Brain
Alvaro Pascual-Leone and Vincent Walsh 231
III Visual Laterality 259
8 Interaction between the Hemispheres and Its Implications for the Processing Capacity of the Brain
Marie T. Banich 261
9 Asymmetries in Encoding Spatial Relations
Bruno Laeng, Christopher F. Chabris and Stephen M. Kosslyn 303
10 Complexities of Interhemispheric Communication in Sensorimotor Tasks Revealed by High-Density Event-Related Potential Mapping
Clifford D. Saron, J. J. Foxe, Charles E. Schroeder and Herbert G. Vaughan Jr. 341
IV Auditory Laterality 409
11 Hemispheric Asymmetries in the Processing of Tonal Stimuli
Robert J. Zatorre 411
12 Dichotic Listening in the Study of Auditory Laterality
Kenneth Hugdahl 441
13 Effects of Attention on Hemispheric Asymmetry
Daniel S. O'Leary 477
V Emotional Laterality 509
14 The Functional Neuroimaging of Human Emotion: Asymmetric Contributions of Cortical and Subcortical Circuitry
Diego Pizzagalli, Alexander J. Shackman and Richard J. Davidson 511
15 Regional Brain Activity in Anxiety and Depression, Cognition/Emotion Interaction, and Emotion Regulation
Wendy Heller, Nancy S. Koven and Gregory A. Miller 533
16 The State and Trait Nature of Frontal EEG Asymmetry in Emotion
James A. Coan and John J. B. Allen 565
VI Neurological Disorders 617
17 Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
Maryse C. Lassonde and Hannelore C. Sauerwein 619
18 Developmental Disorders: Dyslexia
Mark A. Eckert and Christiana M. Leonard 651
19 Structural Correlates of Brain Asymmetry: Studies in Left-Handed and Dyslexic Individuals
Michel Habib and Fabrice Robichon 681
VII Psychiatric Disorders 717
20 Frontal and Parietotemporal Asymmetries in Depressive Disorders: Behavioral, Electrophysiologic, and Neuroimaging Findings
Gerard E. Bruder 719
21 The Laterality of Schizophrenia
Michael F. Green, Mark J. Sergi and Robert S. Kern 743
Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin. He is coeditor of Brain Asymmetry (MIT Press, 1994) and Foundations in Social Neuroscience (MIT Press, 2001).
Kenneth Hugdahl is Professor of Biological and Medical Psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is coeditor of Brain Asymmetry and The Asymmetrical Brain (2002), both published by the MIT Press.
