Functional lateralization in the human brain was first identified in the classic observations
by Broca in the 19th century. Only one hundred years later however research on this topic
began anew discovering that humans share brain lateralization not only with other mammals but
with other vertebrates and even invertebrates. Studies on lateralization have also received
considerable attention in recent years due to their important evolutionary implications
becoming an important and flourishing field of investigation worldwide among ethnologists and
psychologists. The chapters of this book concern the emergence and adaptive function of
lateralization in several aspects of behavior for a wide range of vertebrate taxa. These
studies span from how lateralization affects some aspects of fitness in fishes or how it
affects the predatory and the exploratory behavior of lizards to navigation in the homing
flights of pigeons social learning in chicks the influence of lateralization on the ontogeny
process of chicks and the similarity of manual lateralization (handedness) between humans and
apes our closest relatives.
