Hemispheric specialization and attention: effects of complete and partial callosal section and hemispherectomy on...

Dichotic word monitoring tasks were given to four cases with complete forebrain comissurotomy, three cases of partial section of the corpus callosum, one case of right hemispherectomy, and control subjects. The task involved a unimanual response to target words in either ear (divided attention, Experiment 1) or to target words in one voice that changed ears unpredictably (focused attention, Experiment 2). Left-ear extinction, defined as chance level (25%) detection of left-ear targets and 75% right-ear target detection, varied both between and within subjects during divided attention. No examples of extinction were obtained with focused attention. These results highlight attentional aspects of dichotic listening. Neither the structural, hemispheric asymmetry model (Cortex 3, 163-178, 1967), nor the cognitive, attention priming model (Attention and Performance V, pp. 87-97, Academic Press, New York) could account for the obtained results. We propose an alternative account in terms of the different processing modes and attentional capabilities of the two cerebral hemispheres.