Atypical Brain Asymmetry in Human Situs Inversus: Gut Feeling or Real Evidence?
Open Access
- 16 April 2021
- Vol. 13 (4), 695
- https://doi.org/10.3390/sym13040695
Abstract
The alignment of visceral and brain asymmetry observed in some vertebrate species raises the question of whether this association also exists in humans. While the visceral and brain systems may have developed asymmetry for different reasons, basic visceral left–right differentiation mechanisms could have been duplicated to establish brain asymmetry. We describe the main phenotypical anomalies and the general mechanism of left–right differentiation of vertebrate visceral and brain laterality. Next, we systematically review the available human studies that explored the prevalence of atypical behavioral and brain asymmetry in visceral situs anomalies, which almost exclusively involved participants with the mirrored visceral organization (situs inversus). The data show no direct link between human visceral and brain functional laterality as most participants with situs inversus show the typical population bias for handedness and brain functional asymmetry, although an increased prevalence of functional crowding may be present. At the same time, several independent studies present evidence for a possible relation between situs inversus and the gross morphological asymmetry of the brain torque with potential differences between subtypes of situs inversus with ciliary and non-ciliary etiologies.Keywords
Funding Information
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (G.0111416N)
This publication has 102 references indexed in Scilit:
- Common Variants in Left/Right Asymmetry Genes and Pathways Are Associated with Relative Hand SkillPLoS Genetics, 2013
- Language lateralization by fMRI and Wada testing in 229 patients with epilepsy: Rates and predictors of discordanceEpilepsia, 2013
- Lateralised visual attention is unrelated to language lateralisation, and not influenced by task difficulty – A functional transcranial Doppler studyNeuropsychologia, 2012
- Does cerebral lateralization develop? A study using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound assessing lateralization for language production and visuospatial memoryBrain and Behavior, 2012
- Early Folding Patterns and Asymmetries of the Normal Human Brain Detected from in Utero MRICerebral Cortex, 2011
- Population-based evaluation of a suggested anatomic and clinical classification of congenital heart defects based on the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac CodeOrphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 2011
- Cerebral Asymmetries: Complementary and Independent ProcessesPLOS ONE, 2010
- Hemispheric division of function is the result of independent probabilistic biasesNeuropsychologia, 2009
- Left-Right Determination: Involvement of Molecular Motor KIF3, Cilia, and Nodal FlowCold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 2009