Meta-control describes the phenomenon that one hemisphere takes charge of the response when the two hemispheres plan different actions. The neural fundament of meta-control is possibly a sort of power-play across the commissures. To test this assumption, biopsychologists from Bochum and neurophysiologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing) tested pigeons in a task, in which each hemisphere aimed to peck on a different color pattern. In the critical trials, the animals had to choose between pecking keys that elicit different responses from each hemisphere. The experimental pigeons were tested in this meta-control task both before and after transection of the commissura anterior. This fiber pathway is the largest pallial commissure of the avian brain. The results revealed that meta-control seemed indeed to be modified by interhemispheric transmission via this commissural system.

Ünver, E., Xiao, Q. and Güntürkün, O., Meta-control in pigeons (Columba livia) and the role of the commissura anterior, Symmetry, 2019, 11(2), 124.