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Related Concept Videos

Cerebral Hemispheres01:05

Cerebral Hemispheres

The human brain, a complex organ, is functionally divided into two cerebral hemispheres—left and right. These hemispheres are interconnected by a structure of paramount importance, the corpus callosum. This substantial bundle of neural fibers is not just a bridge between the hemispheres but a crucial element for the brain's comprehensive functioning. It enables efficient communication between the two hemispheres, allowing each side of the brain to control and receive sensory and motor...
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Brain lateralization refers to the division of mental processes and functions between the two hemispheres of the brain, a phenomenon that optimizes neural efficiency and underpins complex abilities in humans. This specialization allows each hemisphere to perform tasks where it has a comparative advantage, facilitating more refined cognitive capabilities across different domains.
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The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...
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Lobes of the Cerebrum

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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways01:28

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the posterior columns...

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Evaluation of Hemisphere Lateralization with Bilateral Local Field Potential Recording in Secondary Motor Cortex of Mice
07:03

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Cerebral asymmetries: complementary and independent processes.

Gjurgjica Badzakova-Trajkov1, Isabelle S Häberling, Reece P Roberts

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. g.badzakova@auckland.ac.nz

Plos One
|March 20, 2010
PubMed
Summary

This study reveals that while speech processing is left-brain dominant, nonverbal functions like spatial processing show right-brain dominance. These brain lateralization patterns are interconnected but also involve independent processes for handedness and spatial attention.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human Brain Imaging

Background:

  • The traditional view posits left-hemispheric dominance for speech, linked to right-handedness.
  • Existing genetic models suggest a single gene influences handedness and speech lateralization.
  • The relationship between left-hemispheric language dominance and right-cerebral dominance for nonverbal functions remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the interrelationships between brain asymmetries for speech, face processing, and spatial processing.
  • To explore whether right-cerebral dominance for nonverbal functions complements left-hemispheric language dominance.
  • To determine the independence of lateralizing processes for handedness and spatial attention.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed with 155 participants.
  • Asymmetrical activation was measured for speech production (frontal lobes), face processing (temporal lobes), and spatial processing (parietal lobes).

Main Results:

  • Left-frontal (speech), right-temporal (face), and right-parietal (spatial) dominance were found to be intercorrelated.
  • These findings suggest that right-cerebral biases may complement left-hemispheric language dominance.
  • Handedness and parietal asymmetry for spatial processing were uncorrelated, indicating distinct lateralizing mechanisms.

Conclusions:

  • Brain lateralization for language, face processing, and spatial processing are interconnected but not entirely dependent.
  • Independent processes likely underlie the leftward bias associated with handedness and the rightward bias for spatial attention.