To examine whether ear dominance in a dichotic pitch-discrimination task is associated with asymmetrical activation of the two cortical hemispheres, ear dominance scores and electroencephalographic (EEG) laterality were correlated in two independent samples (ns = 46 and 128). The results indicate that ear dominance can partly be attributed to a relatively stronger activation of the contralateral prefrontal cortex. The observed association may reflect the tendency to direct attention preferably to one ear.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlhoK.MedvedevS. V.PakhomovS. V.RoudasM. S.TervaniemiM.ReinikainenK.ZeffiroT.NäätänenR. (1999) Selective tuning of the left and right auditory cortices during spatially directed attention. Cognitive Brain Research, 7. 335–141.
2.
AsbjornsenA. E.HugdahlK. (1995) Attentional effects in dichotic listening. Brain and Language, 49, 189–201.
3.
BolesD. B. (1992) Factor analysis and the cerebral hemispheres: temporal, occipital and frontal functions. Neuropsychologia, 30, 963–988.
4.
EfronR.BogenJ.YundE. W. (1977) Perception of dichotic chords by normal and commisurotomized human subjects. Cortex, 13, 137–149.
5.
EfronR.DennisM.YundE. W. (1977) The perception of dichotic chords by hemispherectomized subjects. Brian and Language, 4, 537–549.
6.
EfronR.YundE. W. (1974) Dichotic competition of simultaneous tone bursts of different frequency: I. Dissociation of pitch from lateralization and loudness. Neuropsychologia, 12, 249–256.
7.
GregoryA. H. (1982) Ear dominance for pitch. Neuropsychologia, 20, 89–90.
8.
HelligeJ. B.BlochM. I.CowinE. L.EngT. L.EviatarZ.SergentV. (1994) Individual variation in hemispheric asymmetry—multitask study of effects related to handedness and sex. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 235–256.
9.
KimH. K.LevineS. C. (1991) Sources of between-subjects variability in perceptual asymmetries: a meta-analytic review. Neuropsychologia, 29, 877–888.
10.
KimuraD. (1967) Functional asymmetry of the brain in dichotic listening. Cortex, 3, 163–178.
11.
KinsbourneM. (1970) The cerebral basis of lateral asymmetries in attention. Acta Psychologia, 33, 193–201.
12.
LevyJ.HellerW.BanichM. T.BurtonL. A. (1983) Are variations among right-handed individuals in perceptual asymmetries caused by characteristic arousal differences between hemispheres?Journal of Experimental Psychology, 9, 329–359.
13.
LuriaA. R.HomskayaE. D. (1970) Frontal lobes and the regulation of arousal processes. In MostofskyD. I. (Ed.), Attention: contemporary theory and analysis. New York: Appleton Century Crofts. Pp. 303–330.
14.
NäätänenR. (1982) Processing negativity: an evoked-potential reflection of selective attention. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 605–640.
15.
PapousekI.SchulterG. (1998) Different temporal stability and partial independence of EEG asymmetries from different locations: implications for laterality research. International Journal of Neuroscience, 93, 87–100.
16.
PapousekI.SchulterG. (1999a) EEG correlates of behavioural laterality: right-handedness. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 89, 403–411.
17.
PapousekI.SchulterG. (1999b) Quantitative assessment of five behavioural laterality measures: distribution of scores and intercorrelations among right handers. Laterality, 4, 345–362.
18.
SchulterG.KreuzthalerA.PfurtschellerG. (1990) Ear dominance and laterality of cortical activation identified by event-related desynchronization mapping. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 8, 283–295.
TenkeC. E.BruderG. E.ToweyJ. P.LeiteP.SidtisJ. J. (1993) Correspondence between brain ERP and behavioral asymmetries in a dichotic complex tone test. Psychophysiology, 30, 62–70.
21.
TomarkenA. J.DavidsonR. J.WheelerR. E.KinneyL. (1992) Psychometric properties of resting anterior EEG asymmetry: temporal stability and internal consistency. Psychophysiology, 29, 576–592.
22.
TzourioN.MassiouiF. E.CrivelloF.JoliotM.RenaultB.MazoyerB. (1997) Functional anatomy of human auditory attention studied with PET. Neuroimage, 5, 63–77.
23.
YundE. W.EfronR. (1977) Model for the relative salience of pitch of pure tones presented dichotically. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 62, 607–617.
