Mundorf Annakarina, Ocklenburg Sebastian
Medical School Hamburg, Institute for Systems Medicine and Department of Human Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
Medical School Hamburg, ICAN Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Hamburg, Germany.
Eur J Neurosci. 2025 Sep;62(5):e70249. doi: 10.1111/ejn.70249.
Despite the overwhelming prevalence of rodent-based research in neuroscience, with over 8700 studies published until March 2025 in the European Journal of Neuroscience alone (based on a targeted PubMed search using rodent-related keywords), one striking reality stands out: only a handful-24 studies-have explicitly addressed hemispheric asymmetries (using the same search with asymmetry-related terms). While this number is not exhaustive, it serves to exemplify the relatively limited focus on hemispheric lateralization in rodent studies. This notable gap in the literature highlights a pervasive underappreciation for the role of brain lateralization in rodents, a critical area of investigation that has been widely studied in human neuroscience but remains largely unexplored in animal models. In light of this, it becomes clear that a fundamental shift in research priorities is needed to unlock the full potential of rodent models in understanding brain organization and its implications for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
尽管啮齿动物研究在神经科学领域极为普遍，仅截至2025年3月，仅在《欧洲神经科学杂志》上就发表了超过8700项研究（基于使用啮齿动物相关关键词的针对性PubMed搜索），但一个显著的现实凸显出来：只有少数——24项研究——明确探讨了半球不对称性（使用与不对称相关术语的相同搜索）。虽然这个数字并不全面，但它体现了啮齿动物研究中对半球侧化的相对有限关注。文献中的这一显著差距凸显了对啮齿动物大脑侧化作用普遍缺乏认识，这一关键研究领域在人类神经科学中已得到广泛研究，但在动物模型中仍基本未被探索。有鉴于此，很明显需要在研究重点上进行根本性转变，以充分发挥啮齿动物模型在理解大脑组织及其对神经和精神疾病影响方面的全部潜力。
