Crossed cerebral lateralization for verbal and visuo-spatial function in a pair of handedness discordant monozygotic twins: MRI and fMRI brain imaging

To examine the nature of hemispheric lateralization for neural processes underlying verbal fluency and visuo-spatial attention, we investigated a single pair of handedness discordant monozygotic (MzHd) twins. Imaging of the brain was undertaken using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in combination with manual performance tasks. The twins were discordant for MRI anatomical asymmetries of the pars triangularis and planum temporale, whose asymmetry was consistent with verbal laterality on fMRI. Thus, the right-handed twin had left lateralized verbal with right lateralized visuo-spatial attention, while the left-handed twin had right lateralized verbal with left lateralized visuo-spatial activation; these data lend further support for to the conclusions of Sommer et al.