ABSTRACT

In the last few decades, research on lateralization has expanded our knowledge about the manifestation, development, and mechanisms of this fascinating feature of nervous systems. This has been possible not only thanks to human studies, but to the use of animal models and the introduction of ground-breaking techniques within this research field. However, recent studies have also demonstrated how complex this phenomenon is and highlighted that we still lack a complete understanding of brain and behavioural asymmetries. Here, I comment on two of the challenges presented by Ocklenburg and colleagues that research on lateralization has to face in the next future. I argue that, in order to improve our understanding of lateralization, we have to consider it as a dynamic and plastic characteristic, which is strongly influenced by both internal factors, such as an animal’s motivation and emotional states, and external factors, including the physical environment and the social context.

摘要

在过去的几十年里，对侧化的研究扩大了我们对神经系统这一迷人特征的表现、发展和机制的认识。这不仅要归功于人类研究，还要归功于动物模型的使用以及在该研究领域引入了开创性技术。然而，最近的研究也证明了这种现象有多复杂，并强调我们仍然缺乏对大脑和行为不对称的完整理解。在这里，我评论了 Ocklenburg 及其同事提出的两个挑战，这些挑战是侧化研究在未来必须面临的。我认为，为了提高我们对侧化的理解，我们必须将其视为一种动态的和可塑性的特征，它受到两个内部因素的强烈影响，