Serotonergic interhemispheric asymmetry: neurochemical and pharmaco-EEG evidence.

1. Postmortem neurochemical investigations revealed interhemispheric asymmetry in the mediofrontal region of human brain. Significantly higher right hemisphere serotonin metabolite (5HIAA) content as well as increased maximal imipramine binding (IB) were found in the right hemisphere than in the left side. 2. IB did not show a gender difference in the mediofrontal area. However, women had higher IB in the right orbital frontal cortex than did men. 3. In vivo pharmaco-EEG results tend to support the postmortem neurochemical data. Intravenous chlorimipramine resulted in an asymmetric topographic distribution of the P300 auditory evoked potential, peak amplitudes were shifted to the right hemisphere.