Hemispheric asymmetries and interhemispheric communication
Date
1989
Authors
Correa, Denise Dias
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Abstract
There are suggestions in the literature that, although the left hemisphere is dominant for the processing of language, the direction and degree of language lateralization vary in association with certain factors. First, the right hemisphere has some language abilities, particularly for verbal material that involves emotional content. Second, degree of lateralization of language functions may vary between right- and left-handers and, among left-handers, between those who use the inverted hand posture for writing and those who use the non inverted hand posture. Third, lateralization may be related to ability to transfer information between the hemispheres. The purpose of this study was to look for associations among lateralization of word recognition ability as measured by a tachistoscopic lexical decision task; word type (function vs. emotional); handedness (right, left-inverted, left-noninvertea); and interhemispheric transfer of visual and motor information. Results showed the expected left hemisphere superiority for word recognition in both right- and left-handed subjects, with no significant differences in measured lateralization between function and emotional words. Right-handed subjects showed stronger lateralization for word recognition than did left-inverted subjects. No differences were observed between left-inverted and left-noninverted subjects, but relatively few left-noninverted individuals could be found. The measures of interhemispheric transfer skills did not reveal variations with respect to gender or handedness, nor with respect to degree of lateralization on the lexical decision task.