Brain Lateralization and Developmental Disorders : A New Approach to Unified Research

Brain Lateralization and Developmental Disorders provides a comprehensive review of key findings and speculations from previous research on atypical cerebral lateralization in the most common neurodevelopmental disorders: stuttering, dyslexia, autism and intellectual disability. Emphasis is placed on recent studies, as well as descriptions of the author’s personal research which will provide a promising new direction for future research on these issues.

In this text, Asenova presents four separate studies aiming to examine hemispheric asymmetries in neurodevelopmental disorders. These include the subtypes of developmental stuttering, the subtypes of developmental dyslexia, mild, non-syndromic intellectual disability with comorbid speech and language deficits and autism spectrum disorder with comorbid severe language impairment. The use of uniform research methods, including dichotic verbal perception tasks and lateral preference performance tests, has led to findings that suggest that this new approach could be a key factor in overcoming the ambiguity of findings from previous studies.

By focusing on the discussion of key issues concerning the role of atypical laterality in the genesis of neurodevelopmental psychopathology in both past research and Asenova’s own studies, Brain Lateralization and Developmental Disorders is a valuable reading for students and researchers in neurodevelopmental psychopathology, as well as in developmental neuropsychology and developmental neuroscience.

Ivanka V. Asenova, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neuropsychology at South-West University ‘Neofit Rilski’ in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.