Interhemispheric cooperation of left- and right-handers in mental calculation tasks

Relations between handedness and interhemispheric processing in cognitive tasks were examined. Thirty six right-handers and thirty left-handers (familial and nonfamilial left-handers) were asked to add two numbers which were presented tachistoscopically. Two numbers were displayed either to one visual field, or one to the left and one to the right visual field simultaneously. In Experiment 1, the numbers were displayed in Arabic numerals, and in Experiment 2 one of the numbers was displayed in Kanji and one in Arabic numerals. The results of Experiment 1 showed a bilateral advantage, however no subject group difference was shown in the performance of the three (left unilateral, right unilateral, and bilateral) presentation conditions. Though familial left-handers showed a weaker tendency to different patterns than right and non-familial left-handers, the results of Experiment 2 were largely similar to those of Experiment 1. These findings suggest that interhemispheric processing may not differ between left- and right-handers.