No evidence for lateral asymmetry of neurotransmitters in post-mortem human brain.

A study of post-mortem human brain was undertaken to establish whether there is any evidence for lateral asymmetry of neurotransmitters. Choline acetyltransferase, glutamic acid decarboxylase, alpha-aminobutyric acid, dopamine and noradrenaline were measured in nine comparable areas from the left and right hemispheres of normal post-mortem human brain. Only nigral GABA showed a left-right difference at a significance level of 5%. These negative post-mortem findings suggest that chemical laterality is unlikely to be an important source of error in human post-mortem studies.