ˌla-trə- : localization of function or activity on one side of the body in preference to the other.
What is an example of lateralization?
The most obvious example of laterality is handedness, which is the tendency to use one hand or the other to perform activities. It is the usual practice to classify persons as right-handed, left-handed, or ambidextrous (two-handed).
What is the best definition of lateralization?
Lateralization Definition
The control of some physical or mental function by one side of the body or either hemisphere of the brain.
What is lateralization and why is it important?
Lateralization of brain function is the view that functions are performed by distinct regions of the brain. For instance, it is believed that there are different areas of the brain that are responsible for controlling language, formulating memories, and making movements.
What is lateralization in simple terms? – Related Questions
What is an example of lateralization in the brain?
The best example of an established lateralization is that of Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, where both are often found exclusively on the left hemisphere.
How does brain lateralization affect behavior?
Nonverbal social abilities also tend to be affected by brain lateralization. Specifically, the right hemisphere subsumes the processing of pragmatic language, prosody, and intonation as well as the ability to read facial cues, body language and to adapt behavior based on these cues.
What are the advantages of lateralization?
This finding suggests that cerebral lateralization enhances brain efficiency in cognitive tasks that demand the simultaneous but different use of both hemispheres.
The hemispheres of the human brain are anatomically and functionally asymmetric. The hemispheric lateralization is important for motor, language, perception and emotional processes. Hemispheric lateralization occurs early during the perinatal stages and is genetically associated within families.
What is the meaning of brain lateralization?
Definition. Lateralization of the brain hemispheres refers to a functional dominance of one hemisphere over the other, in which one is more responsible or entirely responsible for control of a function in comparison to the other.
Why is language lateralization important?
Understanding functional localization and hemispheric lateralization of language is especially important in clinical practice. The loss of language is such a devastating blow that neurologists and neurosurgeons make every effort to identify and preserve those cortical areas involved in its comprehension and production.
What is lateralization behavior?
Lateralization of brain and behaviour refers to the fact that the hemispheres of the brain differentially control behaviour. It is also known as hemispheric or cerebral asymmetry/specialization (Vallortigara & Rogers 2005).
How do you assess brain lateralization?
Brain lateralization can also be examined with imaging. Scientists can compare the activation of the right or left brain during a specific task using methods like PET scans, fMRI scans, or EEG recordings.
What causes lateralization?
These altered forms of lateralization may be caused by top-down and bottom-up effects inter- and intraindividually In other words, relatively small changes in acoustic sound features or in their familiarity may modify the degree in which the left vs. right auditory areas contribute to sound encoding.
The symptoms most commonly showing this phenomenon were hypochondriacal delusions and hallucinations, usually of an auditory kind. Possible mechanisms underlying the phenomenon are discussed. Some evidence was found for a difference between the sexes in the direction of lateralization symptoms.
Is brain lateralization a good thing?
Researchers studying the human brain have long maintained that the advantage of having a lateralized brain is increased brain capacity, because lateralization means that neural circuits do not have to be duplicated in each hemisphere. Each hemisphere can have its own specialized circuits and functions.
What age does brain lateralization occur?
Activation of left perisylvian structures by speech has been found in infants as young as three months of age (Dehaene-Lambertz et al. 2006), whereas progressively more lateralized responses to speech have been reported to occur later during the first year of life (e.g., Arimitsu et al.
What is it called when you use both sides of your brain?
Does lateralization increase with age?
Functional neuroimaging has established that increased age is linked to weaker task-based neural lateralization (Cabeza et al., 1997), with older adults showing increased activation of the nondominant hemisphere; a pattern summarized as hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults, (HAROLD; Cabeza, 2002).
Is lateralization genetic?
Handedness and language lateralization are partially determined by genetic influences. It has been estimated that at least 40 (and potentially more) possibly interacting genes may influence the ontogenesis of hemispheric asymmetries.
Does lateralization decrease with age?
The increased lateralization with aging was observed in the cerebellum network (CereN), in which the lateralization was significantly increased in the control group, although the same change tendency was observed in the training group.
