Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on February 2, 2005
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi025
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
15/9/1451    most recent
bhi025v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mohr, C.
Right arrow Articles by Landis, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mohr, C.
Right arrow Articles by Landis, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Article

Brain State-dependent Functional Hemispheric Specialization in Men but not in Women

Christine Mohr 1*, Christoph M. Michel 2, Goran Lantz 2, Stephanie Ortigue 2, Isabelle Viaud-Delmon 3, and Theodor Landis 2

1 The Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory of the Neurology Clinic, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Rehabilitation Clinic, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
2 The Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory of the Neurology Clinic, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
3 CNRS UMR 7593, Hopital de la Salpetriere, Paris, France

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Christine Mohr, E-mail: Christine.Mohr{at}bristol.ac.uk


  Abstract

Hemispheric specialization is reliably demonstrated in patients with unilateral lesions or disconnected hemispheres, but is inconsistent in healthy populations. The reason for this paradox is unclear. We propose that functional hemispheric specialization in healthy participants depends upon functional brain states at stimulus arrival (FBS). Brain activity was recorded from 123 surface electrodes while 22 participants (11 women) performed lateralized lexical decisions (left hemisphere processing) on neutral and emotional (right hemisphere processing) words. We determined two classes of stable FBS, one with right anterior-left posterior orientations (RA-LP maps) and one with left anterior-right posterior orientations (LA-RP maps). Results show that functional hemispheric specialization is dependent upon the class of FBS and gender. Of those with LA-RP maps, only men showed a strong emotional word advantage (EWA) after left visual field (right hemisphere) presentation, but no EWA after right visual field (left hemisphere) presentation. Subsequent to all other brain states, there was an almost equal EWA after presentation to either visual field. Only about half of the FBS in men led to the pattern of functional hemispheric specialization. We suggest that ‘split-brain’ research may be marginally describable by a model, but only in exceptional situations, while in connected brains this functional hemispheric specialization is only one of many dynamic states.

Keywords: EEG; emotion; gender differences; lateralization; lexical decision.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
J. Britz, T. Landis, and C. M. Michel
Right Parietal Brain Activity Precedes Perceptual Alternation of Bistable Stimuli
Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2009; 19(1): 55 - 65.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.