How is brain asymmetry established and what is it good for?. (360G-Wellcome-104682_Z_14_Z)

Most animals are overtly symmetric but on closer inspection, many left/right asymmetries are apparent. In us, this includes the positioning of the heart and viscera. There are also left right asymmetries in the brain and one manifestation of this is handedness. However, there are many other examples such as processing aspects of language in the left hemisphere. Although nervous system asymmetries are present in all animals, we do not know very much about how they develop, not indeed their importance in the functioning of the brain in health and disease. In this project, we will perform studies in zebrafish to try to resolve how nervous system asymmetries arise during embryonic development. We also aim to address the consequences to the animal if brain asymmetry is disrupted. To do this, we study the brains of fish fry carrying genetic mutations that disrupt the developmental processes leading to brain asymmetry. In very young fish, the brains are transparent enabling us to look at brain connections and activity at very high resolution. The outcome of this work should be a much better understanding of the genes and developmental mechanisms that generate left-right asymmetries and of the role that asymmetry plays in brain function.