Talk
This contribution reconsiders behavioral and functional data from studies investigating the imitative behavior, with particular attention to anatomical imitation, and the related mental rotation ability. The studies have been carried out by our group in healthy subjects, with intact interhemispheric connections, and in split-brain patients, completely or partially lacking callosal connections. The results strongly indicate that both anatomical imitation and mental rotation ability require interhemispheric communication, mainly occurring through the corpus callosum, which is the largest white matter structure in the human brain. It can be therefore concluded that the neural circuits supporting these two behavioral performances are asymmetrically distributed in the human brain.

Bio
Author of 221 contributions, 98 of them on international journals, on the following research themes: (1) Anatomical and physiological organization of associative and callosal connections between areas SI and SII, studied by neuroanatomical, electrophysiological and functional techniques; (2) Identification of projecting neurons neurotransmitters of Mammals cerebral cortex, by neuroanatomical and immunohistochemical double labeling technique; (3) Study of somatosensory areas of human cerebral cortex by fMRI; (4) Study of human corpus callosum topography with imaging techniques; (5) Cortical representation of gustatory sensitivity in man studied by fMRI; (6) Study of imitative behavior in man, with neuropsychological and imaging techniques; (7) Study of cell and fibre composition of the human corpus callosum by immunohistochemistry.

Talk
We compared digit ratio and digit asymmetry to reflect brain laterality, and to compare the differential stress level of populations. We used tail injury to reflect stress at the population level. The lizards studied are Tarentola annularis, a climbing gecko with a wide distribution in Africa north of the equator, and considered as an invasive species in Israel. Most of the specimens evaluated were collected from Ein Gedi, Israel. We examined the length and condition of the tail, its size after autotomy (In the event of autotomy), the symmetry between the eyes, SVL, digit ratio (2D: 4D, and Rel.2), and the number of stripes on the tail.

Bio
Most of the research work of Prof. Yosef was connected with grassland ecology and conservation as reflected by shrikes. Additionally, he has authored the species account for the Loggerhead Shrike in the Birds of North America series, and the True Shrike (Laniidae) family account for the Handbook of the Birds of the World. He continues to publish the renewed and updated electronic version of the Birds of the World, hosted by Cornell University. He co-authored the chapter on monitoring of migration in Raptor Research & Management Techniques (2007). He has published almost 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, contributed chapters to several books, and co-authored five books. Prof. Yosef is involved in many research and conservation projects in many countries across the globe—in India, South Africa, Nigeria, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Czech Republic, Jamaica, Peru and Honduras are some of the projects. In the past decade, Prof. Yosef has conducted Environment Impact Studies (EIS) in Mongolia (w/Mongolian Ornithological Society), India (w/ELA Foundation, Indian Forest Service), Israel (Eilat Municipality, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Health, Israel Electric Company, Nature Reserves & Parks Authority, and Israel Airport Authorities) and Jamaica (Morgan Stanley International Airport). At present, he is involved in environmental education in Israeli high schools and very active in the Ministry of Education. He is at present working on a range of projects in India (Leopards in Jaipur; tigers and avian habitat conservation in Maharashtra), Greece (Lesser Kestrel), Cyprus (Cyprus Scops Owl, House Martins), and Israel (Red sea Ghost Crabs, Nubian Ibex, Common Swifts, Environmental Education). He continues to be very active academically and publishes regularly in peer-reviewed, high-quality scientific journals.

Bio
Elisa Frasnelli is a physicist by training and an emergent cognitive neuroscientist by research. She is interested in the study of animal behaviour and cognition from a comparative, mechanistic and evolutionary perspective with a specific focus on brain and behavioural asymmetries. After her PhD in Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Italy, she worked at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Austria, at the University of Exeter in the UK and in Japan. In 2017, Elisa became Lecturer at the School of Life Sciences of the University of Lincoln, UK, and since November 2021 she is Assistant professor at the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences of the University of Trento in Italy.