Callosum and movement control: Case reports

Abstract

This article explores the role of directionality of callosal traffic (codified as handedness), based on personal clinical observations and a critical review of the literature. Based on this evidence, a technical definition of handedness is offered as opposed to the behavioral method in use until now. In the vast majority of right-handers neural and behavioral handedness match. The situation is the opposite in left-handers where two thirds of them are wired to be right-handers, causing the well-known heterogeneity seen in left-handed cohorts. The callosum-length proximity of the dominant side of the body to the command center in the major hemisphere is the source of its neurophysiological superiority compared to the nondominant side. Clinical syndromes in which the new scheme are manifested are reviewed, indicating the existence of an excitatory influence by the neuronal aggregate devoted to voluntary actions, housed in the major hemisphere, on their counterparts in the minor hemisphere. The latter is exclusively devoted to volitional movements occurring on the nondominant side. Thus, it is the directionality of callosal traffic that is responsible for cerebral asymmetries seen in the motor realm.

Keywords:

• HANDEDNESS
• CALLOSUM
• CONTROL
• DEXTERITY
• IPSILATERAL
• PARALYSIS