Cognitive control processes play an essential role not only in controlling actions but also in guiding attentional selection processes. In this study, a team of reseachers from Bochum, Bergen and Dresden investigated whether neurobiological mechanisms that affect functional cerebral asymmetries will also modulate cognitive control. Using the Dichotic smartphone app, the research team investigated the association of genetic variation in the handedness-associated gene LRRTM1 and cognitive control in the dichotic listening task. The results show that functional cerebral asymmetries in the language domain are associated with the rs6733871 LRRTM1 polymorphism when cognitive control and top-down attentional mechanisms modulate processes in bottom-up attentional selection processes that are dependent on functional cerebral asymmetries. The results suggest that cognitive control processes are an important factor to consider when being interested in the genetics of hemispheric asymmetries.

Beste, C., Arning, L., Gerding, W. M., Epplen, J. T., Mertins, A., Röder, M. C., Bless, J. J., Hugdahl, K., Westerhausen, R., Güntürkün, O., & Ocklenburg, S. (2018). Cognitive control processes and functional cerebral asymmetries: association with variation in the handedness-associated gene LRRTM1. Molecular neurobiology, 55(3), 2268-2274.