Failure of Induced Asymmetries to Improve Left—Right Response Differentiation in the Rat

Rats (and humans) appear to be able to distinguish between left and right by referring to an intrinsic asymmetry as a navigational aid; this suggests that experimentally induced asymmetries might also facilitate such a distinction. We assessed the effects of asymmetries produced by unilateral shaving, unilateral vibrissotomy, and asymmetrical cortical lesions on acquisition of a left-right response differentiation. None of the treatments improved performance relative to appropriate control treatments; the rats were evidently unable to use these induced asymmetries to form the lateral differentiation. The results are related to evidence provided in an earlier report (Noonan & Axelrod, 1989) that even some reliable intrinsic asymmetries cannot function as navigational aids

Asymmetry · Laterality · Left and right · Physics · Anatomy · Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience · Medicine · Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation · Neuroscience · Psychology