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Abstract:
Evidences of inter-regional structural asymmetries have been previously reported for brain
anatomic regions supporting well described functional lateralization. Here we aimed to
investigate whether the two brain hemispheres demonstrate dissimilar general structural
attributes implying different principles on information flow management. Common left/right
hemisphere structural network properties are estimated and compared for right-handed healthy
human subjects and a non-human primate, by means of three different probabilistic diffusionweighted
MRI fiber tractography algorithms and a graph theory framework. In both the human
and non-human primate the data support the conclusion that the right hemisphere is significantly
more efficient and interconnected than the left hemisphere, whereas the left hemisphere presents
more indispensable regions for the whole brain structural network than the right hemisphere. In
terms of functional principles, this pattern could be related with the fact that the left hemisphere
has a leading role for highly demanding specific process, such as language, which may require
dedicated specialized networks, whereas the right hemisphere has a leading role for more general
process, such as integration tasks, which may require a more general level of interconnection.
