TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - The evolution of contralateral control of the body by the brain: Is it a protective mechanism?
JO  - Laterality
A1  - Whitehead, Lorne
A1  - Banihani, Saleh
SP  - 325
EP  - 339
VL  - 19
IS  - 3
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1357-650X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2013.824461
ID  - ref1
ER  -