Thalamic Nuclei Morphometry and Handedness: Assessing Grey Matter Volume Differences in Left- and Right-Dominant Individuals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47081/njn2024.15.2/003Keywords:
Thalamic nuclei, Handedness, Grey matter volume, Freesurfer, Cortical morphology, Functional asymmetryAbstract
The connection between thalamic structure and handedness has important implications for understanding the neural basis of lateralization, and this may shed light on the underlying mechanisms of motor control and cognitive processes. This study investigated the relationship between thalamic nuclei morphometry and handedness, aiming to elucidate the neuroanatomical basis of manual preference. Utilising neuroimaging data from a test-retest functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dataset, T1-weighted volumes were acquired and processed using automated segmentation methods. Thalamic nuclei were parcellated into 25 regions, and grey matter volumes were analysed using the Freesurfer software tool. Statistical comparisons of the interhemispheric volume of the four thalamic nuclei between left- and right-dominant individuals were conducted using independent sample t-tests. This study identified interhemispheric differences in specific thalamic nuclei (the ventral anterior thalamic nucleus and the ventral posterolateral thalamic nuclei) in the left- and rig mht-dominant individuals, suggesting structural variability within the thalamus associated with handedness. The findings underscore the importance of considering subcortical structures in understanding the neural basis of manual preference and highlight avenues for further research in thalamic morphology and its relationship with handedness
Downloads
References
Amunts, K., Jancke, L., Mohlberg, H., Steinmetz, H. and Zilles, K. (2000) Interhemispheric asymmetry of the human motor cortex related to handedness and gender. Neuropsychologia. 38:304-312.
Annett, M. (1985) Left, Right, Hand and Brain: The Right Shift Theory. London: Erlbaum.
Bassett, D.S., Bullmore, E.T., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Apud, J.A., Weinberger, D.R. and Coppola, R. (2008) Cognitive fitness of cost-efficient brain functional networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 105(4):1081–1086. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas. 0703874105
Biduła, S.P. and Króliczak, G. (2015) Structural asymmetry of the insula is linked to the lateralization of gesture and language. Eur J Neurosci. 41:1438–1447.
Boelens, J.T., van Heese, E.M., Laansma, M.A., Weeland, C.J., de Joode, N.T., van den Heuvel, O.A., et al. (2021) Structural assessment of thalamus morphology in brain disorders: A review and recommendation of thalamic nucleus segmentation and shape analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 131:466-478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev. 2021.09.044
Chibaatar, E., Watanabe, K., Okamoto, N., Orkhonselenge, N., Natsuyama, T., Hayakawa, G. et al. (2023) Volumetric assessment of individual thalamic nuclei in patients with drug-naïve, first-episode major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry. 14:1151551.
Fama, R. and Sullivan, E.V. (2015) Thalamic structures and associated cognitive functions: Relations with age and aging. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 54:29-37.
Foundas, A.L., Leonard, C.M. and Heilman, K.M. (1995) Structural hemispheric asymmetries in the human precentral gyrus hand representation. Neuropsychologia. 33(10): 1327-1338.
Geschwind, N. and Levitsky, W. (1968) Human brain: left-right asymmetries in temporal speech region. Science. 161(3837):186-187.
Ghaderi, H., Sadikot, A., Campbell, J. and Pike, G. B. (2012) Automatic, rapid, non-invasive and precise localization of thalamic nuclei for deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery using a combination of diffusion and functional MRI. In Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine: Oral presentation at ISMRM 0th Scientific Meeting and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia 2, page 652.
Good, C.D., Sherrill, J.T., Barnes, L.L., Fox, P.T. and Lancaster, J.L. (2001) A comparison of voxel-based morphometry and manual region-of-interest analysis for measuring cortical gray matter volume. Neuroimage. 14(6): 1276-1282. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ abs/pii/S1053811901910671
Gorgolewski, K.J, Storkey, A., Bastin, M.E., Whittle, I.R., Wardlaw, J.M. and Pernet, C.R. (2013) A test-retest functional MRI dataset for motor, language and spatial attention functions. GigaScience Database. http://dx.doi.org/10. 5524/100051.
Greve, D.N. and Fischl, B. (2009) Nonlinear registration of structural MR images to a standard atlas: Automated subcortical segmentation of the human brain. NeuroImage. 47(1):27-37.
Herve, H., Crivello, F., Perchey, G., Mazoyer, B. and Tzourio‐Mazoyer, N. (2006) Hemispheric lateralization of language and handedness in the human brain: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp. 27(6):467-482.
Hirato, M., Miyagishima, T., Takahashi, A. and Yoshimoto, Y. (2021) Thalamic anterior part of the ventral posterolateral nucleus and central lateral nucleus in the genesis of central post-stroke pain. Acta Neurochir. 163(8):2121-2133.
Jenkinson, M. (2003) Fast, automated, N-dimensional phase-unwrapping algorithm. Magn Reson Med. 49(1): 193-197.
Jenkinson, M. and Smith, S. (2001) A global optimization method for robust affine registration of brain images. Med Image Anal. 5(2):143-156.
Keller, S.S., Roberts, N., García‐Fiñana, M., Mohammadi, S., Ringelstein, E.B., Knecht, S. et al. (2011) Can the language‐dominant hemisphere be predicted by brain anatomy? J Cogn Neurosci. 23:2013–2029.
Luders, E., Narr, K.L., Thompson, P.M., Rex, D.E., Woods, R.P., DeLuca, H., et al. (2006) Gender effects on cortical thickness and the influence of scaling. Hum Brain Mapp. 27(4):314–324. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20188
Ocklenburg, S., Friedrich, A., Gunturkun, O. and Genc, Y. (2016) The influence of sex and handedness on the asymmetry of the planum temporale in the human brain. Brain Behav. 6(11):e00517. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/abs/10.1002/brb3.517
Witelson, S.F. and Goldsmith, C H. (1991) The relationship of hand preference to anatomy of the corpus callosum in men. Brain Res. 545:175–182.
Wolff, M., Morceau, S., Folkard, R., Martin-Cortecero, J. and Groh, A. (2021) A thalamic bridge from sensory perception to cognition. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 120:222-235.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Published articles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source(s).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal. Authors have rights to reuse, republish, archive, and distribute their own articles after publication. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. This journal is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
