Content provided in partnership with
Side benefits
Natural History, Sept, 2006 by Stephan Reebs
Like right- or left-handed people, most animals seem to favor one side of their bodies for certain tasks. Lateralized behavior is a sign that the animals' brains are lateralized as well. But is there any benefit to having a lateralized brain? A recent study by Marco Dadda, a psychologist, and Angelo Bisazza, an evolutionary biologist, both at the University of Padua in Italy, suggests that lateralization may make animals better at the critical skill of multitasking--attending to two or more activities at the same time.
- Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »
Goldbelly topminnows are small Central American fish that belong to the guppy family. Female goldbelly topminnows must put up with repeated attempts by males to mate with them. The suitors can be distracting, even exasperating, to females, particularly when they are trying to eat. Dadda and Bisazza compared the feeding efficiency of female goldbelly topminnows bred to be lateralized with that of females bred to have no side preference. When there were no distracting males, the two kinds of females caught food equally well. When randy males were present, however, only the lateralized females kept eating efficiently, while still avoiding unwanted advances. Parallel processing seems to benefit from a brain with asymmetrical function. Behavioral Ecology 17:358-63, 2006)
COPYRIGHT 2006 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
Find Research Guides for:
Find Featured Titles for: Business
- Academy of Marketing Science Review
- Accounting Historians Journal, The
- Accounting History
- AgExporter
- Agricultural Research
- Agricultural and Resource Economics Review
- Air Force Comptroller
- Air Safety Week
- Airline Industry Information
- American Demographics
- American Journal of Potato Research
- Architectural Review, The
- Asian Economic News
- Entrepreneur
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »