Hemispheric differences in processing pictorial material
Date
1982
Authors
Edguer, Beste Ayse
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Abstract
Clinical studies have reported qualitative differences in the drawing performances of left versus right hemisphere damaged patients (constructional apraxia) which are presumed to reflect differential contributions of the two cerebral hemispheres. These studies have not employed standard materials and objective scoring criteria. The present experiment looked for these differences in the drawings of normal subjects following tachistoscopic presentations of geometric patterns to the left and right visual field using objective scoring methods. Twenty right handed males and twenty right handed females with normal or near normal visual acuity were required to draw each pattern after each exposure. Drawings were scored for detail, spatial orientation, spatial integration, and perspective. A significant right visual field (left hemisphere) advantage was found for processing detail. By contrast, a left visual field (right hemisphere) advantage was found for processing information regarding perspective, spatial orientation, and spatial location. These results support the clinical inference that both hemispheres are involved in processing pictorial information but the left is more involved with the identity of constituent elements while the right is more involved with overall configuration. The standard stimuli and scoring methods developed for this experiment may be useful in future clinical studies.