Hemispheric asymmetry for a visuo-spatial task in monkeys.
The hypothesis that hemispheric asymmetries for visuo-spatial ability exist in rhesus monkeys was tested using a task for which the right hemisphere is specialized in man. The task required discrimination between two squares, one containing a central dot and the other a dot displaced upwards from centre. The animals' thresholds were determined before and after left-sided (LH-lesion) or right-sided (RH-lesion) unilateral occipital lobectomy combined with splenial transection, and the percentage change in threshold calculated. The LH-lesion monkeys were all worse than the RH-lesion monkeys on this measure, indicating the existence of a functional asymmetry.
D000818:Animals; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*