Interhemispheric integration in different sensory modalities and their relation to callosal microstructure and functional brain asymmetries

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Erhan Genc
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 314231127

For the seamless unity of our perception, information from both hemispheres needs to be integrated efficiently. Interhemispheric fiber bundles, especially through the corpus callosum, play a major role in this process. Interestingly, this interhemispheric communication varies considerably for different sensory modalities and also across individuals. This project aims to test, whether variations in interhemispheric integration for different sensory modalities can be explained by interindividual differences in the microstructure of the corpus callosum. Since interhemispheric communication is also an important subcomponent of functional brain asymmetries, we additionally test whether variations in interhemispheric communication and microstructure of callosal fibers modulate interindividual differences in speech lateralization. These findings will help us to understand the complex structure-function relationship for interhemispheric integration and will provide novel insights into the establishment and maintenance of functional brain asymmetries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Onur Güntürkün; Professor Dr. Sebastian Ocklenburg