Praitayini Kanakaraj

1 Introduction Brain asymmetry is an organizing principle of the nervous system that enables functional specialization (Ocklenburg et al. 2024). Nearly two centuries ago, the pioneering clinical observations of Marc Dax (1836) (Dax 1865; Manning and Thomas-Anterion 2011) and later Paul Broca (1860s) (Amunts et al. 1999; Broca 1861) first linked left-hemisphere lesions to specific language deficits, establishing that complex cognitive functions are frequently lateralized to one hemisphere.

Correction to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10454-2 Published online 13 May 2026 In the version of this article initially published, the label for Fig. 3a read “Tract mean AD” instead of “White matter tracts”. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Abstract The human brain relies on a complex network of connections to function, with white matter acting as the primary communication highway between different brain regions1,2. Disruptions in these critical communication pathways are linked to several neurological, psychiatric and developmental disorders3,4.