Especially in spatial navigation, how does the left angular gyrus differ from its contralateral counterpart in the coordination of attention and memory retrieval? Any recent research findings shedding light on this issue would be most welcome.
YOUR QUESTION IS DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE IF I UNDERSTAND IT CORRECTLY. THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT SPATIAL NAVIGATION NOT ONLY INVOLVES THE DORSAL ATTENTION NETWORK, BUT ALSO THE HIPPOCAMPAL SYSTEM WHICH INCLUDES SO-CALLED "PLACE" CELLS WHICH FIRE IN THE IMMEDIATE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT. IN ADDITION, THE ENTORHINAL CORTEX INCLUDES SO-CALLED "GRID" CELLS THAT FIRE IN RESPONSE TO MULTIPLE SPATIAL LOCATIONS. THE RETROSPLENIAL CORTEX POSTERIOR TO THE CORPUS CALLOSUM IS CONNECTED TO THE PARIETAL CORTEX AND BOTH HIPPOCAMPAL AND ENTORHINAL CORTICAL REGIONS AND PLAYS A ROLE IN LANDMARK IDENTIFICATION AS WELL. THE PARIETAL/ANGULAR GYRUS REGIONS INCLUDE MASSIVE CONNECTIONAL PROFILES WITH MODULAR REGIONS WITHIN THE CEREBELLUM; LEFT-RIGHT DIFFERENCES AT THE CORTICAL LEVEL MAY IN FACT BE LESS IMPORTANT THAN CONNECTIONS WITH CEREBELLAR "MODULES." SEE VGOOD, CIRCA 2009; CHECK MORE RECENT WORK ON THE ROLE OF THE CEREBELLUM AND CONNECTIONAL PROFILES WITH THE PARIETAL LOBE COMPLEX, PARAHIPPOCAMPAL, AND ENTORHINAL BRAIN REGIONS. I FIND THE QUESTION SOMEWHAT RESTRICTIVE, AND FURTHER SPECIFICITY OF WHAT YOU ARE ASKING MAY BE USEFUL. I SPECULATE THAT THE LEFT HEMISPHERE HAS A NOMINAL ROLE, WITH RECIPROCAL CONNECTIONS WITH THE RIGHT POSTERIOR LATERAL CEREBELLAR HEMISPHERE. A MOST INTERESTING QUESTION THAT OPENS "PANDORA'S BOX." LEN KOZIOL
the role of Angular gyrus cannot accurately be identified separately and should be regarded with the influence from other regions including: somatesthetic (anterior parietal lobe), visual (occipital lobe), auditory (temporal lobe) cortex, and Wernicke's area which is primarily involved in language. To better understand the role of angular gyrus we should consider that it is located in the inferior parietal region of the human brain which is mostly related to cross-modal sensory associations (e.g., visual-auditory, visual-tactile) important for language
Please refer to this well-known paper about Angular gyrus)
Article The Angular Gyrus
However, based on the literature the following functions can be attributed to left and right Angular gyrus:
Left angular gyrus is mostly involved in but no limited to: calculation, speech comprehension, episodic simulation and episodic memory, semantic memory, consciousness etc.
Right angular gyrus is mostly involved in but no limited to: visuospatial awareness, theory of mind (inference of thoughts), visual attention, search, target detection etc.
The followings are some related articles that you can go through
Article A Role for the Left Angular Gyrus in Episodic Simulation and Memory
Article The Right Angular Gyrus Combines Perceptual and Response-rel...
Article Neural Mechanisms underlying Valence Inferences to Sound: th...
Lastly with regard to your question which seems to look for clear distinction between left and right AC, I think the modality matters here. The right hemisphere has almost always more credit to spatial cognition
Following the point made above: Why would you expect the two sides of the Gyrus to have clear differences in their roles for spatial navigation? The AG is part of the heteromodal parietal association cortex, which means its one of the major connecting hubs in the brain. Both sides of the gyrus are also interconnected via the dorsal areas of the splenium and isthmus of the corpus callosum, meaning that both sides would be involved in spatial and quasi-spatial mapping operations.
Considering you are mostly interesting in hemispheric impact on spatial navigation, I would suggest you read the following research. Unfortunately, the answer to your question may not be so cut and dry as you may have liked.
Article Shared and Distinct Neural Bases of Large- and Small-Scale S...
Spreng RN, Mar RA, Kim AS. 2009. The common neural basis of autobiographical memory, prospection, navigation, theory of mind, and the default mode: a quantitative meta-analysis. J Cogn Neurosci21(3):489–510 [PubMed] [Google Scholar]