Citation

Whitehead L, Banihani S. Laterality 2014; 19(3): 325-339.

Affiliation

Department of Physics and Astronomy , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1357650X.2013.824461

PMID

23931149

Abstract

Contralateral control, the arrangement whereby most of the human motor and sensory fibres cross the midline in order to provide control for contralateral portions of the body, presents a puzzle from an evolutionary perspective. What caused such a counterintuitive and complex arrangement to become dominant? In this paper we offer a new perspective on this question by showing that in a complex interactive control system there could be a significant net survival advantage with contralateral control, associated with the effect of injuries of intermediate severity. In such cases an advantage could arise from a combination of non-linear system response combined with correlations between injuries on the same side of the head and body. We show that a simple mathematical model of these ideas emulates such an advantage. Based on this model, we conclude that effects of this kind are a plausible driving force for the evolution of contralateral control.

Language: en