Negative ion effects on hemispheric processing and selective attention in the mentally retarded

The effect of high concentrations of negative air ions on a dichotic digits task was investigated in 19 mentally retarded individuals. Subjects were assigned randomly to an ion or to an unmodified-air placebo condition under double-blind testing. Left and right ears were precued for report order and this order was reversed for the second set of trials. Negative ions promoted greater left hemisphere lateralization on the first set of trials, and enhanced recall when switching to the opposite channels, in the second set of trials. However, the ion-induced REA occurred at the expense of selective attention to the left channel and superior left ear recall after the right ear first condition is an anomalous dichotic listening pattern. Such paradoxical results suggest that negative ions are not necessarily beneficial or detrimental to processing. Negative ions may increase arousal, in this case amplifying a time-phased, information processing disorder in the retarded characterized by excessive right hemisphere inhibition during early processing of receptive speech and diffuse interhemispheric excitatory activation during later processing.