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Cortex
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Research report
Hemispheric asymmetries of cortical volume in the human
brain `s
Elkhonon Goldberg a'', Donovan Roediger a, N. Erkut Kucukboyaci ail', Chad Carlson a,
Orrin Devinsky °, Ruben Kuzniecky a, Eric Halgren b and Thomas Thesen a
a New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
b Multimodal Imaging Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history: Hemispheric asymmetry represents a cardinal feature of cerebral organization, but the
Received 19 June 2011 nature of structural and functional differences between the hemispheres is far from fully
Reviewed 2 September 2011 understood. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging morphometry, we identified several
Revised 27 September 2011 volumetric differences between the two hemispheres of the human brain. Heteromodal
Accepted 28 October 2011 inferopanetal and lateral prefrontal cortices are more extensive in the right than left
Action editor Alan Beaton hemisphere, as is visual cortex. Heteromodal mesial and orbital prefrontal and cingulate
Published online 19 November 2011 cortices are more extensive in the left than right hemisphere, as are somatosensory, parts
of motor, and auditory cortices. Thus, heteromodal association cortices are more exten-
Keywords: sively represented on the lateral aspect of the right than in the left hemisphere, and
MRI morphometry modality-specific cortices are more extensively represented on the lateral aspect of the left
Cortical asymmetry than in the right hemisphere. On the mesial aspect heteromodal association cortices are
Hemispheric specialization more extensively represented in the left than right hemisphere.
Prefrontal cortex QD 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Parietal cortex
1. Introduction between brain biology and function may be expressed on
many levels other than that of gross morphology (cytoarchi-
Hemispheric specialization is among the central features of tectonic, biochemical, etc.). Thus any attempt to infer regional
functional cortical organization in humans. Recognition of the brain function from regional brain morphology, however
functional differences between the hemispheres often trig- tempting, requires great caution and any assertion of a "bigger
gers interestin their morphological differences and vice versa. is better" structure—function relationship must be tempered
Indeed, gross morphological differences between the by this caveat. Such concerns notwithstanding, evidence is
hemispheres are particularly interestingif they can be related growing that a reasonably direct 'bigger is better" relationship
to functional differences. The degree to which such relation- often does exist between functional proficiency and gross
ships can be drawn remains uncertain, since the relationship morphometric cortical characteristics of the underlying
* Authors' Note: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of New York University. Written informed consent was
obtained from all participants involved in the study. We thank Dmitri Bougakov, Barry Cohen, Michal Harciarek, Dolores Malaspina,
Ralph Nixon, and Kenneth Podell for their comments.
' Corresponding author. NYU School of Medicine, 145 East 32nd Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA.
E-mail addresses: ellchonon.goldbergenyurric.org, egneurocogeaol.com (E. Goldberg).
0010-9452/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2011.11.002
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substrate, such as regional volume or surface area size (Goldberg and Costa, 1981). If this were to be the case, the
(Blackmon et al., 2010; Draganski et al., 2004; Fleming et al., functional implications of such cortical space allocation
2010; Maguire et al., 2000; Schneider et al., 2002). differences could be intriguing and would merit further
Early efforts to identify morphological hemispheric asym- examination. However, this assertion was based on old find-
metries were to a large degree motivated by the desire to ings and was limited to cortical convexity; therefore its val-
identify the biological bases of the asymmetric cortical idity must be re-examined with up-to-date methods which
language representation. A number of morphological asym- would target both lateral and mesial aspects of the hemi-
metries have been described, notably involving planum tem- spheres. Here, we report hemispheric differences in regional
perate and pars opercularis, and their relationship to left human brain volume across multiple cortical regions, both
hemispheric dominance for language asserted, but some of lateral and mesial, using the more recently developed Free-
the particularly influential findings were reported several Surfer Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) processing meth-
decades ago using what methodologies were available then odology (Fischl and Dale, 2000; Fischl et al., 2004). The
(Geschwind and Levitsky, 1968; Galaburda et al., 1978; LeMay particular focus of this paper is to ascertain any systematic
and Culebras, 1972). Subsequent research confirmed these differences in cortical space allocation to heteromodal versus
structural asymmetries (Foundas et al., 1994, 1995; Anderson modality-specific cortices in the two hemispheres.
et al., 1999; Watkins et al., 2001) but demonstrated that the
relationship between structural asymmetries in the planum
temperate and language lateralization is not nearly as strong or 2. Methods
as direct as asserted earlier, and the very existence of such
a relationship has been scrutinized (Beaton, 1997). Other 2.1. Participants
structural asymmetries have also been described and subse-
quently confirmed, notably "Yakovlevian torque" (Yakovlev, Structural MR1 data from adults (N = 39) aged 19-40
1972; Yakovlev and Rakic, 1966; Watkins et al., 2001; Nan (Kr , = 27.75, standard deviation — SD,r, = 6.12; 19 females
et al., 2007) characterized by the right frontal and left occip- and 20 males) were analyzed. Participants were all right-
ital protrusions, whose possible relationship to any functional handed as determined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inven-
asymmetries remains unclear. Regional hemispheric asym- tory (Oldfield, 1971) with scores ranging from 40 to 100. They
metries both in cortical thickness (Luders et al., 2006) and were all free of neurological, psychiatric, or neuro-
volume (Good et al., 2001), both in gray and white matter developmental disorders based on screening interviews. They
(Penhune et al., 1996; Takao et al., 2011) have been reported. were recruited as part of a community-based normative
Any morphometric comparison of the two hemispheres reference sample at NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.
may be complicated by individual variability, which is
particularly pronounced in certain structures, e.g., anterior 2.2. Imaging data acquisition
cingulate and paracingulate cortex (Forint° et al., 2004; Huster
et al., 2007). Furthermore, there is a growing appreciation of Two Tl-weighted volumes VT = 3.25 msec, TR = 2530 msec,
sex-linked differences in regional brain morphology TI = 1.100 msec, flip angle = 7°, field of view (FOV) = 256 mm,
(Witelson, 1989; Habib et al., 1991; Crespo-Facorro et al., 2001), voxel size = 1 x 1 x 1.33 mm) were obtained for each partici-
including hemispheric asymmetries (Luders et al., 2009; Raz pant on a 3T Siemens Allegra scanner, acquisition parameters
et al., 2004), as well as age-related hemispheric differences optimized for increased gray/white matter contrast, rigid body
(Raz et al., 2004; Shaw et al., 2009). co-registered, and common space-reoriented. Images were
Our understanding of the functional differences between automatically corrected for spatial distortion, registered,
the two hemispheres has also been refined beyond the classic averaged to improve signal-to-noise ratio, and processed with
distinction between verbal and visuo-spatial asymmetries. the FreeSurfer (4.0.2) software (httpWsurfer.nmr.mgh.
Additional functional differences have been described, notably harvard.edu). Each T1-weighted image took 8:07 min.
those linking the right hemisphere to cognitive novelty and
exploratory behavior and the left hemisphere to cognitive 2.3. Imaging data processing
familiarity androutinization. Since this functional asymmetry
was first proposed (Goldberg and Costa, 1981; Goldberg et al., Averaged volumetric MRI images were used to model each
1994a), it has found support with various neuroimaging tech- subject's cortical surface with an automated procedure
niques, including PET (Gold et al., 1996; Shadmehr and involving white-matter segmentation, gray/white matter
Holcomb, 1997), fMR1 (Henson et al., 2000), and high- boundary tessellation, inflation of folded surface tessellation,
frequency EEG (Karniya et al., 2002). It has been argued that and automatic topological defect correction (Dale et al., 1999;
the "novelty-routinization" functional hemispheric asymme- Fisch' et al., 2001).
try is fundamental and irreducible to the more commonly Automated analysis was performed on a 156 node
invoked language-visuospatial asymmetry, since it is present computing duster and took approximately 32 h per scan. Each
in a wide range of mammalian species (Vallortigara, 2000; analysis was then manually inspected which took, depending
Vallortigara and Rogers, 2005; Vallortigara et al., 1999). on segmentation quality, 20-40 min. Measures of cortical
To account for these functional differences, it has been thickness were obtainedby constructingestimates of the gray/
proposed that systematic differences between the two hemi- white matterboundaty by classifyingall white matter voxels in
spheres exist in relative cortical space allocation to hetero- the MR1volume. The white matter surface was submillimeter
modal association cortices versus modality-specific cortices accuracy-refined in delineating the gray/white matter
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junction. Estimates of cortical thickness were made by conducted in terms of ROts volumes, each derived from
measuring (1) the shortest distance from each point on the cortical thickness measures and surface area parcellation
white matter surface to the pial surface, and (2) the shortest boundaries. We found multiple regional hemispheric asym-
distance from each point on the pial surface to the white metries which are summarized in Fig. 1 and Table 1. In order
matter surface. Cortical thickness at each vertex was to highlight the most robust and best articulated patterns of
computed as the average of the two values. The accuracy of asymmetries, the results and discussion below detail only
automatic parcellation methods is often undermined by indi- those asymmetries which remained significant at p <.0S level
vidual variability. For this and other reasons, manual quality after a rigorous Bonferroni correction for multiple compari-
inspection was performed on all reconstructions and required sons was applied (a = .00067). This correction, which lowers
manual intervention in 5% of scans. All of these cases were Type I errors at the expense of Type II errors, highlighted the
reinspected and all yielded good segmentation results. Maps most prominent asymmetries. These are summarized in Fig. 2
were smoothed with a Gaussian kernel (10 mm FWHM) across and described below. Here we present the result of regional
the surface. Cortical surfaces from different individuals were cortical volume comparisons. We found that regional cortical
morphed to a common reference brain by aligning sulcal—gyral surface comparisons were generally consistent with the
patterns while minimizing shear and metric distortions (Fischl volume comparisons Thickness comparisons yielded few
et at, 1999). Automatic parcellation of the cortical surface was significant asymmetries when rigorous statistical criteria
performed with sulco-gyral neuroanatomic labels derived by were used.
probabilistic information. Past research has validated these
automatic labels against anatomical manual labels and 85% of 3.1. Whole-sample asymmetries (males and females
the surface was found to be concordant (Destrieux et al., 2009, combined)
2010). Parcel regions of interest (ROI) designation as 'gyrus" or
"sulcus" was based on the values of local mean curvature and Fig. lA shows uncorrected p values, while Fig. 2A shows post-
average convexity, obtained from the reconstructed cortical Bonferroni significant asymmetries for the whole sample. The
surfaces output from FreeSurfer, relative to a given threshold; superior frontal gyms, superior frontal sulcus, frontomarginal
vertices with values below the threshold were considered sulcus, suborbital sulcus, gyms rectos, postcentral gyms,
sulcal, and vertices with values equal to or above this threshold postcentral sulcus, tinplate gyms, paracentral gyms,
were considered gyral. A total of 75 ROI were identified in each subcentral gyros, transverse temporal gyri, superior temporal
hemisphere. In each ROI, cortical thickness estimates were gyms (lateral aspect), planum temporale, superior parietal
averaged across all vertices. Regional volumes were calculated gyms, anterior occipital sulcus, ascending ramus of the lateral
as the product of surface area and average cortical thickness. fissure, and circular insular sulcus (superior and inferior
For the whole-sample analysis, a laterality index (U) — as aspects) were larger in the left than right (L > R) hemisphere
defined by Nagata et al. (2001) — was used to control for sex- across the whole sample (all p values < .00067). Conversely,
linked variability in global brain volume. Regional LI values the inferior parietal gyms, superior occipital gyms, lingual
were calculated for each subject using the following equation: gyms, calcarine sulcus, lateral fissure (posterior segment),
collateral transverse sulcus, middle frontal sulcus, subparietal
Left — Right x 100
LI sulcus, anterior subcentral sulcus, superior temporal sulcus,
Left + Right
cingulate sulcus, the lateral aspect of orbital gyri, pericallosal
This index spans from —100 to 100 with positive values sulcus, and Jensen sulcus were larger in the right than left
indicating leftward asymmetry, negative values indicating (R> L) hemispheres (all p values < .00067). This is summarized
rightward asymmetry, and zero indicating perfect symmetry. in Fig. 2A, where regions larger in the right hemisphere are
For each ROI, a two-tailed single-sample t- test was used to depicted in yellow and regions larger in the left hemisphere
compare the distribution of LI values against zero. To main- are depicted in blue.
tain an experiment-wise error rate of .0S, Bonferroni correc-
tion (a = .00067) was employed to address the problem of 3.2. Analyses of sex-linked differences
multiple comparisons, where the number of comparisons was
75. In separate analyses by sex, paired-sample t-tests were When grouped by sex, leftward asymmetries (L > P) of the
used to compare left and right regional volumes among each anterior occipital sulcus and lateral aspect of superior
pair of contralateral ROIs. An identical Bonferroni correction temporal gyms were significant in females (both
method was utilized for these pairwise tests. Areas were p values < .00067) but not males (p > .05 and p < .005,
considered asymmetric if the statistical significance criterion respectively) while the cingulate gyms, planum temporale,
(a = .00067) was reached. Reported visualizations map statis- and superior frontal sulcus were significantly larger on the left
tical results on the 3D whole brain volume (with the parcel in males (all p values < .00067) but not females (p < .05,
boundaries between the structures exhibiting the same p < .005, and p < .005, respectively). Conversely, rightward
direction of laterality removed for visual clarity). asymmetry (R > L) of the lingual gyms occurred in females
(p < .00067) but not males (p < .005) and the subparietal
sulcus was significantly larger in the right hemisphere in
3. Results males (p < .00067) but not females (p < .005). Notably, the
superior temporal and Jensen sulci and the lateral aspect of
Since we were interested in the relationship between func- orbital gyri both failed to reach significance in either sex alone
tionally distinctive cortical regions, the analysis has been despite displaying significant rightward asymmetry in the
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Significance (p)
<.00005 .0005 .005 .05 .05 .005 .0005 <.00005
L>R R >L
Pig. 1 - Regional cortical volume asymmetries in the two hemispheres uncorrected for multiple comparisons. Direction of
differences and uncorrected significance levels are coded according to the color bar below: (A) whole-sample, (B) females
only, (C) males only.
whole-sample analysis. No parcels revealed significant later- As a result, several distinct asymmetry patterns emerged,
ality in opposing directions across sexes. which are discussed below.
Sex-specific results are detailed in Table 2. Fig. 111 and C
shows uncorrected p values for females and males, respec- 4.1. Heteromodal association cortical asymmetries
tively, while Pig. 2B and C shows post-Bonferroni significant
asymmetries for each sex. Although Pigs. 1 and 2 appear to We found differences in the hemispheric representation of
suggest sex differences, an ANOVA failed to reveal significant heteromodal association cortices. Heteromodal inferoparietal
interactions between sex and laterality in any ROI. and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices are more extensive in the
right than left hemisphere. By contrast, mesial and orbital
prefrontal and cingulate cortices are more extensive in the left
4. Discussion than right hemisphere. These asymmetries closely parallel the
findings by Luders et aL (2006) pertaining to cortical thickness.
In this study we intentionally adopted a conservative signifi- Thus it appears that heteromodal association regions found
cance criterion for data analysis, in order to identify a rela- on the lateral (convexital) aspect of the hemisphere, are more
tively small number of the most robust hemispheric extensive in the right than in the left hemisphere, as predicted
differences while possibly overlooking less robust differences. earlier (Goldberg and Costa, 1981). This is true both for the
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Table 1 Regional volumetric comparisons and Lls - + x 1001 for males and females combined. For each ROI,
the means a nd SDs of right and left hemisphere cortical volume (mm3) measurements, as well as the means and SDs of Lls,
are listed.
ROI Mean (SD) Sig.
Left (mm^3) Right (inntA3) Ll
Anterior occipital sulcus 1097.4 (274.3) 895.8 (298.2) 11.07 (17.52) <.05•
Calcarine sulcus 3381.8 (699.1) 3903.7 (709.3) -7.21 (5.62) <.054
Central insular sulcus 289.1(81) 258.5 (72.9) 5.73 (20.7) n.s.
Central sulcus 3609.6 (492) 3488.8 (633) 1.96 (5.57) n.s.
Cingulate and intracingulate sulci 6797.9 (956.1) 9525.1 (1372.4) -16.63 (6.06) <.05•
Cingulate gyms 9740.8 (968.5) 3979.2 (710.1) 8.44 (11.18) <.05'
Cingulate sulcus (marginalis part) 1332.1 (259.9) 1312.5 (309.3) 1.11 (11.42) n.s.
Circular sulcus of insula (anterior) 935.5 (153.3) 1050.3 (266.4) -5.06 (8.77) n.s.
Circular sulcus of insula (inferior) 2299.2 (332.3) 1908.4 (270.8) 9.22 (5.87) <.054
Circular sulcus of insula (superior) 2778 (367.8) 2199.3 (324.6) 11.68 (5.8) <.05•
Collateral transverse sulcus (anterior) 1523.3 (388.8) 1673.2 (473.8) -4.47 (15.35) n.s.
Collateral transverse sulcus (posterior) 492.8 (155.3) 762.6 (212.9) -21.3 (16.74) <.05•
Cuneus 3907.2 (597.6) 3399.4 (654.4) 31(7.98) n.s.
Frontomarginal gyms 1032.2 (290.9) 1196.8 (314.9) -7.71(13.01) n.s.
Frontomarginal sulcus 1006.4 (252.7) 764.5 (190.2) 13.19 (14.95) <.054
Cyrus rectos 2154.9 (361.5) 1669 (302.1) 12.67 (8.52) <.054
H-shaped orbital sulcus 2502 (395.1) 2428.2 (401) 1.55 (8.04) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (opercular part) 3903.2 (653.1) 3150.7 (503) 3.59 (8.45) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (orbital part) 871(291.7) 935.2 (233.6) -4.26 (16.47) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (triangular part) 2698.4 (453) 2704.8 (546.5) .18 (9.12) n.s.
Inferior frontal sulcus 3101.6 (798.6) 2968.4 (479.9) 1.63 (9.78) n.s.
Inferior occipital gyrus and sulcus 2797 (717.6) 2832.9 (628.7) -1.05 (12.42) n.s.
Inferior parietal gyms (angular part) 5535.6 (868.2) 6946.9 (1132.1) -11.69 (7.6) <.09
Inferior parietal gyms (supramarginal part) 6671.4 (1173.9) 6465.7 (1011.6) 1.39 (6.57) n.s.
Inferior temporal gyms 6362.9 (1149.1) 6227 (1315) .89 (8.09) n.s.
Inferior temporal sulcus 1972.1(987.2) 1793.4 (444.1) 4.63 (12.13) n.s.
Insular gyms (long) 870.4 (298.7) 874.4 (172.8) -.84 (9.26) n.s.
Insular gyrus (short) 1852.7 (326.6) 1776.1 (355.4) 2.38 (7.17) n.s.
Intraparietal and transverse parietal sulci 3815.8 (522.2) 9022 (579.3) -2.58 (7.02) n.s.
Isthmus 351.4 (101.7) 375.3 (100.4) -3.64 (12.05) n.s.
Lateral fissure (horizontal ramus) 499 (191.6) 578.6 (124.1) -7.81 (13.96) n.s.
Lateral fissure (posterior) 1638 (271.5) 1968.1 (250.6) -9.34 (7.33) <.0511
Lateral fissure (vertical ramus) 598.4 (166.7) 435.1 (139.5) 15.52 (21.28) <.05'
Lateral occipito-temporal gyms (fusiform) 9522.9 (751) 4192.5 (804.7) 3.92 (8.47) n.s.
Lateral orbital gyms 6260.5 (998.2) 6802.1 (1197.1) -4.07 (5.4) <.054
Lateral orbital sulcus 628.8 (200.3) 727.4 (299.4) -6.1(17.97) n.s.
Lingual gyms 5609.9 (930.2) 6546.4 (960.8) -7.78 (7.11) <.05•
Medial occipito-temporal and lingual sulci 3187.2 (574.5) 3187.3 (654.1) .11 (7.95) n.s.
Medial occipito-temporal gyms 9242.8 (565.7) 4494.5 (554.2) -2.91 (7.24) n.s.
(parahippocampal part)
Medial orbital sulcus 913 (199.8) 858.3 (173.4) 3.34 (10.05) n.s.
Medial wall 5543.9 (1079.9) 5513.1 (733.2) -2.1 (5.7) n.s.
Middle frontal gyms 9632.9 (1944.6) 10211.8 (1836.7) -3.1 (7.08) n.s.
Middle occipital gyms 9911.2 (579.7) 9563 (739.8) -1.49 (7.36) n.s.
Middle occipital sulcus and sulcus lunatus 1550 (920.7) 1589.4 (534.9) -.32 (17.4) n.s.
Middle temporal gyms 8128.8 (1368.6) 8497.4 (1359.7) -2.29 (5.48) n.s.
Occipito-temporal sulcus (lateral) 1328.6 (331.5) 1413.6 (338.3) -3.3 (11.28) n.s.
Paracentral gyrus 2554.8 (914.5) 2101 (337.4) 9.77 (8.13) <.05•
Paracentral sulcus 318.5 (94.2) 275.2 (84.8) 7.52 (18.39) n.s.
Parieto-occipital sulcus 2643.4 (591) 2828.1 (496.8) -3.62 (7.44) n.s.
Pericallosal sulcus 1303.4 (211.3) 1592.1 (275.5) -9.88 (9.03) <.05•
Planum polare 1873.4 (387.7) 1950.1 (400.5) -2.05 (9.81) n.s.
Planum temporale 2293.3 (493.9) 1887.6 (361.7) 9.35 (11.89) <.054
Postcentral gyrus 4201.2 (677) 3556.1 (710.2) 8.57 (6.99) <.05•
Postcentral sulcus 3794.8 (698.6) 3006.9 (759.1) 12.13 (8.64) <.05'
Precentral gyms 6246.9 (825.9) 6211.5 (959.3) .41 (5.48) n.s.
Precentral sulcus (inferior part) 2975.8 (571.5) 2615.8 (317) -3.49 (9.88) n.s.
Precentral sulcus (superior part) 1933.5 (967.3) 2062.4 (398.2) —158 (11.84) n.s.
Precuneus gyms 5724.6 (800.9) 5285.8 (8S7.5) —.05 (5.38) n.s.
Subcallosal gyms 315.6 (194.3) 256.6 (81.8) 7.29 (30.36) n.s.
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(continued)
Lit.'•
ROI
1 Mean (SD)
Left (mm^3) Right (mm^3) LI
Subcentral gyrus 2573.9 (395) 1986.4 (386.4) 13.06 (9.43) <L0P
Subcentral sulcus (anterior) 163.3 (83.8) 287.9 (109.5) -27.61 (29.22) c.09
Subcentral sulcus (posterior) 499.5 (148.3) 440 (123.2) 5.92 (16.33) n.s.
Suborbital sulcus 1007.7 (249.5) 617.1 (185.8) 24.38 (13.13) <.05'
Subparietal sulcus 1694.1 (342.2) 2081.9 (484.4) -9.78 (10.09) <.09
Sulcus intermedius primus (Jensen) 546.2 (259) 704.3 (275.5) -13.65 (22.15) <.05'
Superior frontal gyrus 20151 (2783.3) 18661.6 (2336) 3.75 (2.92) <.05'
Superior frontal sulcus 4794.6 (972.9) 4085.2 (909.9) 7.99 (8.3) <.05'
Superior occipital gyms 2455.3 (452) 3098.4 (612.4) -11.34 (8.25) <.05'
Superior occipital sulcus and sulcus transversalis 1699.7 (327.5) 1815.1 (327.8) -4.82 (10.95) n.s.
Superior parietal gyms 5735 (977.9) 4746.1 (718.8) 9.25 (6.23) <.05'
Superior temporal gyms (lateral aspect) 5907.4 (842.2) 5138.2 (788.9) 7.01 (6.41) <.05'
Superior temporal sulcus 8790.3 (1275.9) 9666.6 (1151.9) -4.89 (5.61) <.05'
Temporal pole 5607.1 (836.1) 5968.2 (678.1) -1.07 (6.29) n.s.
Transverse temporal gyrus and intermediate sulcus 1087.6 (206.2) 840.1 (184.9) 12.94 (9.61) ‹.05'
Transverse temporal sulcus 531.3 (137.2) 456.7 (100.8) 7.16 (13.78) n.s.
a After Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.
inferoparietal and for parts of the lateral prefrontal regions. By prefrontal regions, as well as for the cingulate cortex. The dual
contrast, heteromodal association cortices found on the mesial dissociation in the volumetric asymmetries of lateral versus
and orbital aspects of the hemisphere are more extensive in the mesial heteromodal association cortices is not commonly
left than in the right hemisphere. This is true for the mesial mentioned in the literature on hemispheric differences, but it
Fig. 2 — Regional cortical volume asymmetries in the two hemispheres corrected for multiple comparisons. Regions
significantly larger after the correction ( p < .05) in the left hemisphere are in blue; regions significantly larger in the right
hemisphere are in yellow: (A) whole-sample, (B) females only, (C) males only.
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Table 2 lb gional volumetric comparisons in separate sexes. Data are presented separately for males and females. For
each ROI, the means and SDs of right and left hemisphere cortical volume (mm3) measurements are listed.
ROI Males Females
Mean (SD) Sig. Mean (SD) Sig.
Left (mmA3) Right (mmA3) Left (mmA3) Right (mmA3)
Anterior occipital sulcus 1092 (272.3) 950.6 (257.8) ns. 1103.1 (283.9) 838.1 (332.8) <.05°
Calcarine sulcus 3462.6 (698) 4012.5 (736.4) <.05° 3296.8 (600.3) 3789.1 (680.1) <.05°
Central insular sulcus 309.8 (73.4) 274.7 (583) n.s. 267.4 (84.8) 241.4 (83.8) n.s.
Central sulcus 3675.9 (596.9) 3670.5 (7124) n.s. 3539.9 (353.4) 32973 (484.6) n.s.
Cingulate and intracingulate sulci 7042.7 (1030A) 10100.4 (1375.1) <.05° 6540.2 (820) 89193 (1106.8) <.05°
Cingulate gyms 5140.9 (836.4) 4133.2 (729.2) <.05° 4319.6 (936.3) 3817.1 (670.3) n.s.
Cingulate sulcus (marginalis part) 1390.7 (209.8) 1393.1 (331.4) ns. 1270.4 (297.3) 1227.7 (266.7) n.s.
Circular sulcus of insula (anterior) 1009.2 (134.8) 1153.6 (313.7) ns. 857.9 (134.3) 941.7 (147.1) n.s.
Circular sulcus of insula (inferior) 2417.7 (315.2) 2020.5 (271.6) <.05° 2174.4 (310.2) 1790.5 (120) <.05°
Circular sulcus of insula (superior) 2928.6 (366.8) 2259.9 (348.5) <.05° 2619.6 (303.2) 2135.5 (293) <.05°
Collateral transverse sulcus (anterior) 1548.2 (334.1) 1657.7 (557.5) ns. 1497 (447) 16895 (381.1) n.s.
Collateral transverse sulcus (posterior) 522.5 (184.5) 828.4 (218.7) <.05° 461.6 (113.8) 6914 (188) <.05°
Cuneus 3631.2 (480) 3575.4 (783.5) ns. 3171.5 (524.8) 3214.3 (430.9) n.s.
Frontomarginal gyrus 1154.7 (279.1) 1331.5 (343.5) ns. 903.3 (249.5) 1054.9 (208.4) n.s.
Frontomarginal sulcus 1077.7 (252.4) 805.2 (211.3) n.s. 931.4 (236.5) 721.6 (159.6) n.s.
Cyrus rectus 2318.7 (328.2) 1800 (310.4) <.05° 1981.5 (317.3) 1531.3 (227.7) <.05°
H-shaped orbital sulcus 2573.1 (435.9) 2538.3 (433.2) n.s. 2427.3 (342.8) 2312.3 (337.3) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (opercular part) 3608.3 (766.2) 3252.9 (523.2) n.s. 3181.1 (426.6) 3043.2 (470.6) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (orbital part) 907.8 (262.4) 989.3 (271.4) n.s. 832.3 (218.2) 878.3 (175.5) n.s.
Inferior frontal gyms (triangular part) 2809.5 (520) 2880.6 (537.6) n.s. 2581.6 (345.9) 2519.7 (504.9) n.s.
Inferior frontal sulcus 3274 (960.3) 3085 (582.1) n.s. 2920 (376.7) 2845.6 (312.2) n.s.
Inferior occipital gyrus and sulcus 2997.7 (7444 2953 (578.9) n.s. 2585.8 (640) 2706.5 (669.2) n.s.
Inferior parietal gyms (angular part) 5673.6 (872.9) 7436.8 (1005.8) <.05° 5390.3 (862.3) 6431.2 (1044.2) <.05°
Inferior parietal gyms (supramarginal part) 7077.1 (1204) 6718 (1118) n.s. 6244.3 (1001.9) 6203 (834.2) n.s.
Inferior temporal gyms 6877.1 (1152.9) 6610.4 (1209.7) n.s. 5821.7 (1558) 5823.5 (1330.7) n.s.
Inferior temporal sulcus 2104.4 (452.3) 1949.2 (436.8) n.s. 1832.8 (495.2) 16213 (399.5) n.s.
Insular gyms (lon) 880.1 (160.8) 925.2 (182.7) n.s. 860.2 (321) 821.1 (148) n.s.
Insular gyrus (short) 1966.4 (312.4) 1931 (315) n.s. 1733.1 (304.5) 1613 (327.4) n.s.
Intraparietal and transverse parietal mkt 3972.5 (538.7) 4225.4 (652.1) n.s. 3651 (461.9) 3807/ (406.5) n.s.
Isthmus 373.6 (117.6) 412.4 (118.6) n.s. 328 (78.3) 336.2 (57.4) n.s.
Lateral fissure (horizontal ramus) 528.7 (160) 607 (147.7) n.s. 467.7 (115.3) 548.6 (87.4) n.s.
Lateral fissure (posterior) 1683.7 (313.7) 2071.6 (277.5) <.05° 1590 (216.9) 1859.1 (163.8) <.05°
Lateral fissure (vertical ramus) 602.7 (159.3) 413.6 (139.2) n.s. 593.9 (178.5) 457.8 (139.9) n.s.
Lateral occipito-temporal gyrus (fusiform) 4629/ (691) 4588.8 (773.3) n.s. 4409.4 (812.7) 3775.3 (614.3) n.s.
Lateral orbital virus 6686 (964.1) 7314.6 (1339.5) n.s. 5812.7 (842.4) 6262.6 (729.5) n.s.
Lateral orbital sulcus 691.4 (218) 790.7 (364.4) n.s. 562.9 (160.2) 6617 (199.8) n.s.
Lingual gyms 5917.4 (9714) 6750.1 (984.9) n.s. 5286.3 (773.6) 6331.9 (911.2) <.05°
Medial occipito-temporal and lingual sulci 3334.1 (492.3) 3461.4 (758.6) n.s. 3032.6 (625.8) 2898.8 (352.8) n.s.
Medial occipito-temporal gyrus 4443.2 (547.1) 4657.3 (514.7) n.s. 4031.9 (517.8) 4323.1 (555.2) n.s.
(parahippocampal part)
Medial orbital sulcus 960.8 (152.5) 914 (203.5) n.s. 862.8 (132.8) 799.6 (112.5) n.s.
Medial wall 5954.4 (9012) 5731.4 (551.7) n.s. 5110.9 (1105.3) 5283.2 (839.5) n.s.
Middle frontal gyms 10194.3 (2124.6) 10775.8 (2222.3) n.s. 9041.1 (1580.6) 9618 (1087.8) n.s.
Middle occipital gyms 4560.4 (585.1) 4793.6 (816.1) n.s. 4254.2 (545.2) 4320.2 (575.4) n.s.
Middle occipital sulcus and sulcus lunatus 1576.1 (381.3) 1696.4 (491.6) n.s. 1522.6 (467.6) 1476.7 (568.3) n.s.
Middle temporal gyms 8750.1 (1118.5) 9180 (1223.2) n.s. 7474.8 (1324.1) 7778.9 (1123) n.s.
Occipito-temporal sulcus (lateral) 1410.3 (311.2) 1482.6 (373.5) n.s. 1242.7 (338.5) 1341 (289) n.s.
Paracentral gyrus 2692.2 (368.1) 2187.8 (302.7) <.05° 2410.2 (420.3) 2011.7 (432.7) <.05°
Paracentral sulcus 329 (103.9) 300.2 (73.2) ns. 307.5 (84.3) 248.8 (89.9) n.s.
Parieto-occipital sulcus 2836 (541.8) 2962.5 (4314) ns. 2440.7 (472.7) 2686.6 (530.6) n.s.
Pericallosal sulcus 1367.4 (185.9) 1637.4 (259.8) <.05° 1236 (220.1) 1544.4 (290.3) <.05°
Planum polare 1930.8 (4252) 2051.8 (440.6) ns. 1812.9 (344.2) 1843.2 (332) n.s.
Planum temporale 2407/ (581.6) 1889.6 (379.4) <.05° 2172.7 (356.4) 1885.5 (352.5) n.s.
Postcentral gyms 4212.6 (7752) 3691.4 (715.1) <.05° 4189.2 (577.2) 3413.8 (695.2) <.05°
Postcentral sulcus 4077.7 (652.3) 3292.3 (858) <.05° 3497.1 (506.3) 2706.4 (503.7) <.05°
Precentral gyms 6533.2 (884.7) 6609.1 (1009.6) ns. 5945.6 (653.4) 5792.9 (711.6) n.s.
Precentral sulcus (inferior part) 2544.3 (636) 2665 (370.5) ns. 2403.7 (502) 2564/ (248.8) n.s.
Precentral sulcus (superior part) 2083/ (552) 2239.4 (356.1) 1775.2 (296.2) 1876.1 (359.8) n.s.
Precuneus gyms 5590.3 (929.6) 5663.8 (986.3) 4942.4 (461.5) 4887/ (446.9) n.s.
Subcallosal gyms 318.8 (155.1) 244.3 (85.5) 312.3 (136.3) 269.6 (77.8) n.s.
EFTA00301234
Author's personal copy
CORTEX 4.9 (2013) 200-210 207
in .(condnued)
ROI Males Females
Mean (SD) Sig. Mean (SD) Sig.
Left (mmA3) Right (mmA3) Left (mmA3) Right (mmA3)
Subcentral gyms 2625.2 (482.1) 2011.2 (400.1) <.05" 2519.8 (279.2) 1960.3 (380.6) <.05"
Subcentral sulcus (anterior) 168.8 (95) 301.6 (107.5) as. 157.4 (72.2) 273.5 (112.6) n.s.
Subcentral sulcus (posterior) 534.4 (146.5) 454.4 (107) as. 462.9 (144.9) 424.7 (139.7) n.s.
Suborbital sulcus 1096 (262.8) 704.2 (184.8) <.05" 914.8 (201.9) 525.5 (139.9) <.05"
Subparietal sulcus 1765.3 (416.6) 2190.8 (539) <.05" 1619.1 (228.8) 1967.2 (403.3) n.s.
Sulcus intermedius primus (Jensen) 606.2 (265.4) 811.3 (326.8) as. 483.1 (231.7) 591.7 (146.5) n.s.
Superior frontal gyms 21154.3 (3018.9) 19435.4 (2431.2) <.05" 19094.9 (2106.8) 17487.1 (1978.6) <.05"
Superior frontal sulcus 5054.1 (971.2) 4238.2 (987.4) <.05" 4521.4 (921.4) 3924.1 (815.7) n.s.
Superior occipital gyms 2620.8 (489.4) 3457.7 (536.6) <.05° 2281.2 (340.7) 2720.2 (439.6) <.05"
Superior occipital sulcus and 1712 (354.6) 1807.6 (397.4) as. 1584.1 (291.3) 1822.9 (245.1) n.s.
sulcus transversalis
Superior parietal gyms 6141 (944.5) 5011(745.6) <.05* 5307.7 (837.6) 4467.3 (586.5) <.05"
Superior temporal gyms (lateral aspect) 6205.8 (902.2) 5509 (727.7) as. 5593.4 (659.6) 4747.8 (664.2) <.05'
Superior temporal sulcus 9046.6 (1251.5) 10057.2 (1069) as. 8520.5 (1278.1) 9255.6 (1116.8) n.s.
Temporal pole 5982.5 (642.5) 5987.8 (612.6) as. 5211.9 (847.7) 5393.4 (619.1) n.s.
Transverse temporal gyms and 1124.6 (238.6) 872.7 (213.9) <16' 1048.6 (162.8) 807.5 (147) <.05"
intermediate sulcus
Transverse temporal sulcus 563.2 (155.1) 457.5 (111.3) as. 497.7 (109.8) 455.9 (91.5) n.s.
a After Bonfenoni correction for multiple comparisons.
may be important for refining our understanding of hemi- hemisphere. By contrast, somatosensory cortex, auditory
spheric specialization. Inferoparietal association cortex, near cortex, portions of premotor cortex, and motor cortices
the boundary of temporal and parietal lobes, helps maintain controlling oropharyngeal structures are more extensive in
attention to the outside world (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002), the left than right hemisphere. Our findings that the superior
and its damage, particularly on the right side, results in atten- temporal gyms, planum temporale, and inferior portion of the
tional impairment (Heilman et al., 2003). Prefrontal cortex motor areas are volumetrically larger in the left than right
found on the lateral aspect of the hemisphere (dorsolateral and hemisphere parallel previously reported asymmetries in the
ventrolateral) is critical for accessing and activating task- planum temperate and frontal operculum (Geschwind and
relevant representations found in the posterior association Levitsky, 1968; Galaburda et al., 1978). Luders et al. (2006) re-
cortices (O'Reilly and Munakata, 2000; Jonides et al., 2008; Van ported a similar pro-left hemispheric asymmetry in the
Snellenberg and Wager, 2009). Close neuroanatomical connec- cortical thickness of anterior temporal-lobe structures. Our
tivity and functional relationship exists between the posterior finding of pro-right hemispheric differences in the volume of
heteromodal association cortices and lateral prefrontal heter- cortex implicated in visual processing parallels the cortical
omodal association cortices (Goldman-Rakic, 1988; Fuster, surface differences reported by Lyttelton et al. (2009) and
2008). By contrast, mesial/orbitomesial prefrontal and anterior cortical thickness differences reported by Luders et al. (2006).
cingulate cortices (ACCs) are critical for salience-driven deci- These asymmetries are broadly consistent with the
sion making guided to a large extent by the organisms's internal commonly described left hemispheric dominance for
states, motivations and needs (Bechara et al., 1998; Koenigs language and right hemispheric dominance for visuo-spatial
et al., 2007; Botvinick et aL, 1999; Carter et al., 1999). The func- processing in humans.
tional implications of the dual lateral versus mesial hetero-
modal association cortical asymmetry with opposite and 4.3. Cortical space allocation on the lateral versus mesial
complementary cortical space allocation are intriguing and aspects of the hemispheres
they await further clarification. A possible relationship between
hemispheric differences in heteromodal versus modality- Cortical space allocation on the lateral (convexital) aspect
specific cortical space allocation and the differential roles of appear
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