Psychology 332B Week Eight Lectures (Textbook Notes)

Chapter Eleven: Cerebral Asymmetry

Cerebral Asymmetry: The left and right cerebral hemispheres have partly
separate functions
Laterality: The idea that the two cerebral hemispheres have separate
functions, leads to the notion that two different minds control our behavior
Four Fascinating Variables complicate research on Laterality:
1. Laterality is relative not absolute. Both hemispheres participate
in nearly every behavior, the left hemisphere being particularly
important in producing language, the right having some but lesser
language capabilities

2. Cerebral site is at least as important in understanding brain

function as cerebral side. The frontal lobes are asymmetrical,
but their functions are more similar to each other than they are to
those of the posterior cortex on the same side. It is often difficult to
localize lesions in neurological patients to one hemisphere even
though the location of the damage (parietal / temporal / front ect.)
may be immediately obvious

3. Environmental and genetic factors affect laterality. The

cerebral organization of some left-handers and females appears less
asymmetrical than that of right handers

4. A range of animals exhibit laterality. Asymmetry was thought

to be a unique aspect of human brains related to language however
we have discovered it in many species

The Planum Temporale (Wernickes Area) lies just posterior to the

primary auditory cortex (Herschls Gyrus) within the Sylvian (lateral) fissure
On average, in 65 of 100 brains Geshwind and Levitsky studied, the
planum temporale in the left hemisphere was nearly 1 cm longer than
that in the right hemisphere
The primary auditory cortex (Heschls Gyrus) is larger in the right
hemisphere where two of these reside compared to one in the left
hemisphere
MRI scans of living brains confirm eight major anatomical differences
between the two hemispheres:
1. The right hemisphere is slightly larger and heavier than the left, but
the left contains more gray matter (neurons) relative to white matter
(connections)
2. The structural asymmetry of the left and right temporal lobes may
provide an anatomical basis for their observed specialization in
language and in music functions respectively
3. The anatomical asymmetry in the temporal lobes cortex correlated
with an asymmetry in the thalamus. This asymmetry complements an
apparent functional asymmetry in the thalamus: the left thalamus is
dominant for language functions
4. The slope of the lateral fissure is gentler on the left hemisphere than
on the right. The region of the temporoparietal cortex lying ventral to
the lateral fissure therefore appears larger on the right.
5. The frontal operculim (Brocas Area) is organized differently on the
left and the right. The area visible on the brain surface is about one-
third larger on the right than on the left, whereas the area of the cortex
buried in the regions sulci (ridges) is greater on the left than on the
right. This anatomical asymmetry probably corresponds to the
lateralization of these regions, the left side affecting grammar
production and the right side possibly influencing tone of voice
(prosody).
6. The distribution of various neurotransmitters is asymmetrical in both
the cortical and subcortical regions. The particular asymmetries in the
distribution of ACh, GABA, NE, DA, depend on the structure under
consideration
7. The right hemisphere extends farther anteriorly than does the left, the
left hemisphere extends farther posteriorly than does the right and the
occipital horns of the lateral ventricles are five times as likely to be
longer on the right as on the left
8. Analysis of cortical surfaced area imaged in 69 brains that were
combined into a single population-averaged brain reveals an
unexpectedly broad pattern of asymmetries not visible in individuals
brains. Even though the overall neocortical surface area was the same
in both hemispheres, an overall pattern of asymmetries exist with the
left hemisphere in the Sylvian and medial temporal regions and the
right hemisphere in the posterior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal
areas.
The largest anatomical asymmetries center on the temporoparietal language
areas and are present before birth, a finding that lends support to the
proposition that language is innate in humans and that asymmetries may
exist to support language.

Neuronal Asymmetry
A commissurotomy, the surgical procedure of disconnecting the 200
million nerve fibres that connect the corpus callosum may be
necessary to perform to prevent the spread of seizures from one
hemisphere to the other when medications have failed
This procedure was medically beneficial with many patients virtually
seizure-free and with minimal effects on daily behavior following the
procedure. A unique behavioural syndrome was soon observed known
as Split-Brain where sensory information can be presented to on
hemisphere and its function studied without the other hemisphere
having access to the information
When the left hemisphere has access to information, it can
initiate speech and communicate about the information
When the right brain has information it can recognize objects but
cannot initiate speech because it lacks access to the speech
mechanisms of the left brain

WEEK 8 SLIDE #76 Question:

Which of the following is true about people with a severed corpus callosum?
A) If they feel a touch on their left hand, it will cause activity in the left, but
not right, parietal cortex.
B) If they see an object in their right visual field, it will cause activity in right,
but not left, visual cortex.
C) If a word is presented to the right visual field, it will cause
activity in the left visual cortex.
D) Since language depends on the left hemisphere, the left motor cortex, not
the right, controls talking with the mouth.
E) If a word is whispered into the left ear, it will cause activity in the right
auditory cortex.
Answer: C) The hemispheres are separated however the optic tracts
are still responsible for transmitting information from the right
visual field to the left side of the brain and vice versa. Information
from the right visual field will therefore be accessible by the left
hemisphere but not the right and the patient will likely be able to
communicate the item information verbally but will not be able to
draw the item or identify it by touch with the right hand (right hand
controlled by the left hemisphere)

The right hemisphere also has a special capability for recognizing faces as
demonstrated by patients being shown an array of faces followed by a
composite of two of these faces:
Example:

Individuals selected the original image presented in the left visual field
(recognized by the right hemisphere of the brain)

Applying electrical current to the cortex of a conscious person has four

general effects three excitatory, one inhibitor:
1. The brain has symmetrical as well as asymmetrical functions.
Stimulating the primary motor, somatosensory, visual and auditoy
areas and pathways can produce respectively, localized movements,
localized dysthesias (numbness or tingling in the skin), light flashes or
buzzing sensations.
2. The right hemisphere has perceptual functions not shared by
the left hemisphere. Stimulation can produce interpretive and
experiential responses. That is, patients report specific memories in
response to specific stimulation. These uncommon but often highly
reliable phenomena include alteration in the patients interpretation of
 the surrounding-dj vu, fear, dreaming states and reproductions of
visual of auditory aspects of specific earlier experiences. The
phenomena usually arises from tissue showing epileptogenic discharge
but their occurrence reveals and asymmetry: stimulation of the right
temporal lobe produces these phenomena more frequently than does
stimulation of the left temporal lobe.
3. Stimulating the left frontal or temporal region may accelerate
speech production. Acceleration may result from a type of alerting
response and may occur in other cognitive processes, especially
memory, although this possibility is difficult to demonstrate
unequivocally.
4. Stimulation blocks function. This sole inhibitory effect is apparent
only when current is applied to left hemisphere temporofrontal areas
while a patient is actively engaged in complex function such as
language and memory. Stimulating these same sites in a quiet patient
has no discernible effect. Speech disruption is also a well-documented
effect of left hemisphere stimulation. Right-hemisphere stimulation
disrupts judgements of line orientation, facial expressions and short
term memory for faces.

The effect of disrupting stimulation can be ultralocalized with stimulation

in areas with as little as a few millimeters of difference producing varying
results. This stimulation is extremely reliable within individuals but can
vary from patient to patient providing a basis to believe that individuals
assign different amount of cortical area to different functions.

CAROTID SODIUM AMOBARBITAL INJECTION

Language is usually located in the left hemisphere, but in a small percentage
of people, most of them left-handed, the right hemisphere houses language.
In event of elective surgery, a surgeon must be certain of the location in
order to avoid damage to the speech zones.
To achieve this, Jun Wada pioneered the technique of injecting sodium
amobarbital (truth serum) into the carotid artery (Wada Test) to produce a
brief period of anesthesia of the ipsilateral hemisphere. Today surgeons
normally make injections through a catheter inserted in the femoral artery.
The advantage of this procedure is that each hemisphere can be studied
separately in the functional absence of the anesthetized one. Because it lasts
several minutes, a variety of functions, including memory and movement,
can be studied to determine the capabilities of one hemisphere while the
other is anesthetized.
Technique:
1. A patient is given a dry run to become familiar with the behavior
tests that will be conducted during and after the drug injection. This
run establishes a baseline performance level against which to compare
postinjection performance
2. The patient is given a series of simple tasks entailing immediate and
delayed memory for both verbal and nonverbal material for the same
purpose
3. Moments before the drug is injected, the supine patient raises both
arms and wiggles the fingers and toes
4. The patient is asked to start counting from 1 and without warning, the
neurosurgeon injects the drug through the catheter for 2 to 3 seconds
5. Within seconds, the dramatic changes in behavior are apparent
6. The contralateral arm falls to the bed with flaccid paralysis and a firm
pinch of the skin of the affected limb elicits no response whatsoever
7. If the hemisphere injected is non-dominant for speech, the patient may
take a 20-30 second pause and appear confused but can continue to
count and carry out the verbal tasks when promoted to
8. If the area was dominant for language, the patient will be unable to
continue and appear aphasic for a period usually ranging from 4 to 10
minutes
9. Patients will also be completely non-responsive to visual stimuli in the
contralateral vision field
Approximately 98% of right handers and 70% of left handers show speech
disturbance after sodium amobarbital injections in the left hemisphere but
not in the right. This supports the view that the pattern of speech
representation is less predictable for left-handed and ambidextrous subjects
than right-handers but the majority of left-handers do still have speech
localized in the left hemisphere
While none of the right-handers in this study displayed bilateral speech
organization, 15% of non-right handers displayed some significant speech
disturbance subsequent to sodium amobarbital injection on either side.
These patients speech functions were most likely not symmetrically
duplicated in both hemispheres due to injections in one side disrupting
things like naming whereas injection in the other affected processes like
serial ordering.

Asymmetry in the Visual System

The conclusion drawn by more than 50 years of tachistoscopic (a tool for
presenting visual information to eyes independent of each other) studies has
shown that visual information is processed most effectively by the
hemisphere specialized to receive it. Words presented to the verbal left
hemisphere are more efficiently processed than words presented to the
nonverbal right hemisphere. Faces and other visuospatial stimuli is most
effectively processed by the right hemisphere (presented to the left visual
field).
Asymmetry in the Auditory System
The auditory system is not as completely crossed as the visual system
because both hemispheres receive projections from each ear. The crossed
auditory connections are more numerous however and conduct more rapidly
than ipsilateral (same side) projections.
When verbal stimuli presented dichotically (to both ears simultaneously), the
pathway from the right ear to the speaking hemisphere has preferred access
and the ipsilateral pathway from the left ear is relatively suppressed.
This is because during such a task, the stimulus to the left ear must
first travel to the right hemisphere then cross the cerebral
commissures to the left hemisphere. This longer path puts the left ear
at a disadvantage.
Left-ear superiority was present for melodies due to the right
hemisphere being primarily responsible for processing this type of
sensory stimulation
During these Kimura Studies, not all patients exhibited the expected ear
advantage consistently nor where the effects significantly large (rarely exceeding a
two-fold advantage between ears) however this study was key due to its ability to
test localization of function non-invasively.

Apraxia: Severe deficits in making or copying voluntary movement sequences.

Chapter Twelve: Variations in Cerebral Asymmetry