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Mirror images of asymmetry

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 6, page 663 (2005)Cite this article

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Laterality of the nervous system is intimately associated with asymmetry of the viscera, a fact that is highlighted by the reversals of some brain structures in people with situs inversus totalis, in which the positioning of internal organs is inverted. But individuals with this condition retain left-sided language processing, which indicates that functional laterality of the nervous system does not always follow asymmetry of the viscera.

Barth and colleagues explored the relationship between visceral, neuroanatomical and behavioural asymmetries in frequent situs inversus (fsi) zebrafish, which often show reversed laterality of the brain and viscera. In reversed fsi mutants, the main left–right body asymmetries were coupled to certain brain asymmetries and lateralized behaviours. But some behavioural asymmetries did not reverse, which suggests that more than one mechanism underlies lateralization in the zebrafish CNS.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Barth, K. A. et al. fsi zebrafish with situs inversus show concordant reversal of laterality of viscera, neuroanatomy, and a subset of behavioral responses. Curr. Biol. 15, 844–850 (2005)

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  2. Duboc, V. et al. Left–right asymmetry in the sea urchin embryo is regulated by Nodal signalling on the right side. Dev. Cell 9, 147–158 (2005)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Toga, A. W. & Thompson, P. M. Mapping brain asymmetry. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 4, 37–48 (2003)

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Authors
  1. Rebecca Craven
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Craven, R. Mirror images of asymmetry. Nat Rev Neurosci 6, 663 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1757

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1757

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