How do brains become lateralised? (ARC Discovery Project administered by Macquarie University) (2019–2022)
Abstract:
This Project aims to understand how the left and right sides of the brain become specialised for different cognitive
functions, a phenomenon called lateralisation. Lateralisation is one of the least understood organisational
principles of the brain, yet is crucial to the way we think and behave. Manifested most clearly as handedness, the
brain is lateralised for many cognitive tasks such as language, reasoning, memory and emotion. However, the
developmental origin and anatomical substrate of most cognitive asymmetries are unknown. This Project will use
a chick model of brain lateralisation to quantify and localise to specific brain circuits the patterns of differential
gene expression that give rise to anatomical and functional asymmetries.