Pascual Alberto, Huang Kai-Lian, Neveu Julie, Préat Thomas
Développement, Evolution, Plasticité du Système Nerveux, CNRS, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Nature. 2004 Feb 12;427(6975):605-6. doi: 10.1038/427605a.
The asymmetrical positioning of neural structures on the left or right side of the brain in vertebrates and in invertebrates may be correlated with brain laterality, which is associated with cognitive skills. But until now this has not been illustrated experimentally. Here we describe an asymmetrically positioned brain structure in the fruitfly Drosophila and find that the small proportion of wild-type flies that have symmetrical brains with two such structures lack a normal long-term memory, although their short-term memory is intact. Our results indicate that brain asymmetry may be required for generating or retrieving long-term memory.
脊椎动物和无脊椎动物大脑中神经结构在左侧或右侧的不对称定位可能与脑侧化相关，而脑侧化与认知技能有关。但到目前为止，这一点尚未通过实验得到证实。在此，我们描述了果蝇大脑中一种不对称定位的结构，并发现一小部分具有两个对称这种结构的野生型果蝇缺乏正常的长期记忆，尽管它们的短期记忆完好无损。我们的结果表明，大脑不对称可能是产生或检索长期记忆所必需的。
