Elaboration of representations in a left-handed subject with callosal damage

Four experiments were carried out in a familial left-handed patient who, following a vascular accident, underwent a callosal lesion and had a right hemianopia. Previous observations by Poncet et al. (1978) demonstrated that both hemispheres controlled expressive language. In the first experiment haptic unimanual exploration showed that each system (right hand/left hemisphere; left hand/right hemisphere) elaborated very different mental representations of the stimulus and gave different types of verbal report of it (naming and talking about). In the second experiment, manual exploration of a maze in the search of a target was performed randomly with the right hand and following a competent spatial strategy with the left hand. The third experiment investigated the ability of the right hemisphere to discriminate the phonetic features of the names of objects that were identified but not named. In the fourth experiment, recognition memory of objects was shown to be better when information was processed by the left hand - right hemisphere system than by the right hand - left hemisphere system. Findings are discussed in terms of verbal vs. non-verbal processes and of perceptual awareness.