The neurobiological basis of lateralized cerebral function. A review

The first part of this review considers the empirical findings regarding the anatomical asymmetries that may be related to the left hemisphere's dominance for language. The review reveals that there are interhemispheric differences in the anatomy of the posterior sylvian region and of portions of the inferior frontal gyrus. In the second section, difficulties in attributing functional significance to these morphological asymmetries are discussed. The third section considers anatomical, behavioural and neurochemical asymmetries in animals and their relation to problems of human cerebral asymmetry.