Auditory neglect and the ear extinction effect in dichotic listening: a reply to Beaton and McCarthy (1993)

In our reply to Beaton and McCarthy (1993), we argue that the issue of ear extinction in dichotic listening also should take into account lesion site and lesion extension. When the lesion is primarily affecting the auditory pathways, the resulting dichotic dysfunction may be an ear extinction effect. However, when the lesion is outside of the auditory system, the absence of reports from one ear may be part of a larger cognitive deficit, involving more complex processes, like orientation and attention. Thus, by constraining the definition of an "ear extinction effect" to a perceptual deficit, Beaton and McCarthy confounds the issue of ear extinction with auditory neglect. In our reply we also present some new data from a patient with a left-sided thalamic pulvinar lesion, contrasting his dichotic listening performance with the patient reported in our original 1991 study.