Selective loss of complex-pitch or speech discrimination after unilateral lesion

Twenty-eight right-handed patients who suffered a single cerebrovascular accident in the distribution of either the left or right middle cerebral artery were tested on their ability to discriminate complex-pitch and speech stimuli presented dichotically. Whereas the left hemisphere lesion group was impaired in dichotic speech but not in dichotic complex-pitch discrimination, the right hemisphere lesion group was impaired in dichotic complex pitch but not in dichotic speech discrimination. Complex-pitch phenomena may provide a useful model for the study of auditory function in the nondominant hemisphere.