Two brains, one child: interhemispheric information transfer deficits and confabulatory responding in children aged...

In an investigation of developmental trends in the ability to transfer information between the cerebral hemispheres, 138 children, ages 4, 7, and 10, viewed pictures presented to either the right or left hemisphere and were asked to describe what was viewed. Responses were socored for the number of accurate pictorial features reported (inclusion score), confabulation (erroneous embellishment), perceptual, semantic, and syntactic errors. Misses (failure to provide a response) were also noted. A preponderance of errors were found, such that 4-year olds engaged in a significant degree of confabulatory responding following right vs. left presentation. A significant inverse relationship was found between inclusion and confabulation such that the larger the gap in information reported the greater was the tendency to insert (confabulate) erroneous material. In addition, all children were given a tactile-shape recognition task employing both transfer and non-transfer conditions and requiring tactile exploration and visual recognition. Significantly more errors were found on the transfer vs. non transfer task among the 4-year olds only. In that deficits in information transfer were not complete but only partial, and given that significant intra-hemispheric (non-transfer) errors were also discovered, it was concluded that the hemispheres of children age 4 are not completely but only partially disconnected, and that intra-hemispheric (cortical) immaturity plays a significant role in the production of processing deficits.