Motor correlates of dichotic listening asymmetries in children

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive relation between incidence of unintended motor overflow and degree of asymmetry on a dichotic word identification task in children. Seventy-eight third grade girls and 67 fifth grade boys were seen longitudinally over a 2-yr period. Among girls, incidence of overflow, primarily contralateral, accounted for nearly 20% of the variance in dichotic listening scores; but the results were not reliable for boys. The findings support the contention that suppression of the non-dominant hemisphere is an important mechanism underlying dichotic listening performance.