Why does the brain divide its work between two hemispheres, with each side specializing in tasks like language, handedness, and recognition of faces? To find out, a team led by Marnie Halpern, PhD, a neuroscientist and chair and professor of molecular and systems biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, has turned to a tiny fish.
In this confocal image, neurons light up on both sides of a juvenile zebrafish’s hindbrain, but only on the left side of its forebrain, revealed using CRISPR-engineered transgenic techniques.
Image Courtesy of Krishan Ariyasiri, PhD
Asymmetry of brain cells—like that visualized here—influences behavior and, in humans, has been implicated in disorders such as autism, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. By tracing how this early “one-sided glow” is connected to other brain regions, Halpern’s lab aims to shed light on how such left-right differences shape cognition and behavior—and what happens when that natural bias goes awry.
Neuroscience researchers Krishan Ariyasiri, PhD (right), and Marnie Halpern, PhD (left), study a scan of a zebrafish brain.
Zebrafish eggs 48 hours after collection.
Krishan Ariyasiri, PhD, carefully transfers zebrafish eggs in the zebrafish research facility at Dartmouth.
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