The effect of the functional asymmetry of the brain on face morphometry ın the university students of mathematics and painting department.

BACKGROUND: Face is a complicated structure that several configurations are originated and integrated each other during the developmental stages. Almost the whole of face is formed by neural crest cells migrating from the edge of the cranial neural folds to the pharingeal arcus. Brain is an asymmetric organ both functionally and anatomically. While the left hemisphere is dominant in processing the verbal, mathematical and logical informations, the right hemisphere is dominant in processing the perceptual, visible, spatial and artistic informations. The functional differences in the left and right brain hemispheres might also cause differences in facial regions developing from the same centers embryologically just like telencephalon. Therefore; we aimed to perform linear antropometric measurements and determine whether functional asymmetry of brain creates any change in facial linear measurements, on painting and mathematics departments students' face whose skills are different from each other.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study were performed on the 212 students. A total number of 22 measurements from 17 anthropometric points for each student were done. Measurements were carried out between November 2011 and February 2012.

RESULTS: Our findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between two student groups in the face width, interchantal distance, mandibular width, nose width, upper lip height and philtrum length. The comparison of genders revealed that there statistically significant differences between all. In addition, all students from both departments had euryprosope face type when face type points were compared.

CONCLUSIONS: Those differences might be related to the functional asymmetry of brain. Therefore it could be suggested that the functional asymmetry of brain could cause an asymmetry in face as well as in the linear anthropometric measurements.