Dichotic listening and focused attention in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

Dichotic listening data are reported from children with left and right hemiplegia, compared with a normal, age-matched, control group. The dichotic listening test was performed under two different attentional instructions. The aim of the study was to investigate whether lateral injury to one hemisphere also affects the capacity to direct attention in a laterality task because of inattention. The dichotic task consisted of consonant-vowel syllables that were presented with two different instructions, to attend to the left- or right-ear stimulus. The results showed that the control children had a right-ear advantage during the forced-right attention instruction, and a small left-ear advantage during the forced-left instruction. The two hemiplegia groups, however, showed the same ear advantage irrespective of attentional instruction. The results are discussed in terms of hemi-inattention and hypoarousal of the lesioned hemisphere in children with hemiplegia.