Is two times a half more than one? Function and evolution of brain lateralisation in humans.

Dr. T.G.G. Groothuis

Results 2006

The PhD student, Jessica Lust, has made a start with her educational program under supervision of the graduate school Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences.
With respect to project 1 and 2b:
Video tapes of the children at 2 years of age are being analysed. Designing a proper observation scheme took quite some time. We decided to focus on hand preference. The tapes of 37 children in a free play setting have been observed. The data are being analyzed now and will be presented during a poster session on the BCN New Years meeting. Observations will continue from March on. Three master students are working on all 90 tapes and will focus on pointing behaviour. This will be finished in March.
The data from the children at 5 years of age have been collected for 45 children. Their number is still growing.

The project in behavioural biology has only recently started with the appointment of Bernd Riedstra as the post.doc and there are no changes to what is described in the original application. Initial experiments have been conducted for further development of the animal model (testing lateralization in different behavioural domains of the pigeon) and the required housing facilities have been ordered. In addition, we conducted an experiment in which we tested the interaction effect of light and testosterone on behavioural lateralization in the pigeon. The results are currently analysed. A survey of the literature on hormones and lateralization has been started in order to write a revuew.
In collaboration with the psychology group we conducted a survey on human lateralised traits by questionair amongst 440 life science students. This questionair will serve to analyse consistency and degree in lateralization of different traits, its relation with sex and early head position, and forms the basis of a larger survey for among biology and psychology students.
An additional grant has been obtained from de Dobbeke stichting for equipment that facilitates the analyses of video registrations (Ethovision). The project is now linked with a larger EU network programme on lateralisation which just started.