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Abstract

A dichotic melody recognition task was employed to determine cerebral lateralization of melodic stimuli among musicians and nonmusicians. The non-musicians revealed a significant left ear (right hemisphere) strength for the recognition of test melodies. The left ear effect among musicians was found to be related to the subject's area of music specialization. Singers demonstrated a significant left ear superiority for melody recognition, whereas ear differences were not significant for instrumentalists. Overall performance (combined ear scores) on the melodies task was positively related to right ear scores. Subjects who performed well on the melody recognition task were more likely to show a right ear (left hemisphere) superiority than those who performed poorly.

Keywords

audiovisual ability aural discrimination aural stimulus memory musical excerpt sensory acuity tests theory

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Auditory Laterality Effects for Melodic Stimuli Among Musicians and Nonmusicians

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