[Interhemispheric relations in chronic alcoholism]

The time of perceiving literal stimuli, as well as the time of the reaction to the latter were determined in chronic alcoholics and in healthy subjects. The stimuli were offered unilaterally to the left and the right field of vision using the reverse masking method. In the healthy subjects the time of perceiving the literal stimuli was shorter when the letter was presented to the left field of vision, i. e. the information entering directly the right hemisphere was processed more rapidly. The alcoholics showed an inversion of the normal interhemispheric relations because of the impairment of right hemisphere functions, i. e. the time of perceiving the letters was longer in the left than in the right field of vision. No differences between the hemispheres as regards the time of the reaction were revealed. In the alcoholics the process of decision taking was found to be greatly slowed down.