title: Left hemispheric dominance of vestibular processing indicates lateralization of cortical functions in rats.
abstract: Lateralization of cortical functions such as speech dominance, handedness and processing of vestibular information are present not only in humans but also in ontogenetic older species, e.g. rats. In human functional imaging studies, the processing of vestibular information was found to be correlated with the hemispherical dominance as determined by the handedness. It is located mainly within the right hemisphere in right handers and within the left hemisphere in left handers. Since dominance of vestibular processing is unknown in animals, our aim was to study the lateralization of cortical processing in a functional imaging study applying small-animal positron emission tomography (microPET) and galvanic vestibular stimulation in an in vivo rat model. The cortical and subcortical network processing vestibular information could be demonstrated and correlated with data from other animal studies. By calculating a lateralization index as well as flipped region of interest analyses, we found that the vestibular processing in rats follows a strong left hemispheric dominance independent from the "handedness" of the animals. These findings support the idea of an early hemispheric specialization of vestibular cortical functions in ontogenetic older species.
authors: Department of Neurology, Vestibular Research Unit, Philipps-University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35043, Marburg, Germany, bestc@uni-marburg.de.
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Best
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Lange
authors: Hans-Georg
authors: HG
authors: Buchholz
authors: Mathias
authors: M
authors: Schreckenberger
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Reuss
authors: Marianne
authors: M
authors: Dieterich
mesh_terms: D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000378:metabolism*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014725:Vestibular Nerve / Q000502:physiology*