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Interhemispheric cooperation during lexical processing is mediated by the corpus callosum: evidence from the
B Mohr1, F Pulvermüller, J Rayman
1UCLA, Department of Psychology 90024-1563.
Neuroscience Letters
|November 7, 1994
Summary
Bilateral word presentation enhances processing speed and accuracy in normal subjects due to transcallosal connections. This benefit is absent in split-brain patients, confirming the role of these connections in lexical processing.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Normal subjects exhibit enhanced word processing when stimuli are presented to both visual fields (bilateral gain).
- This phenomenon is hypothesized to involve excitatory transcallosal connections facilitating interhemispheric communication for word recognition.
Observation:
- A split-brain patient (L.B.) performed a lexical decision task involving unilateral and bilateral visual field presentations.
- Performance was compared between left visual field, right visual field, and simultaneous bilateral presentations.
Findings:
- The expected bilateral gain in processing speed and accuracy was absent in the split-brain patient.
- Performance with bilateral presentation was not superior to unilateral presentation in the right visual field.
Implications:
- Transcallosal connections are crucial for the observed bilateral gain in lexical processing.
- This finding supports the role of interhemispheric communication in efficient word recognition.