Auditory affect perception in a dichotic listening paradigm as a function of verbal fluency classification

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Cerebral asymmetry, the lateralization of brain functions, influences cognitive processes.
• Verbal fluency, a measure of language production, may interact with hemispheric specialization for affect perception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between verbal fluency and cerebral asymmetry in the perception of emotional stimuli.
• To determine if fluency classification affects the degree of right and left ear advantages for affect and word stimuli.

Main Methods:

• Forty-five right-handed participants were categorized into high and low verbal fluency groups using the FAS test.
• Participants completed a dichotic listening task using the Bryden and MacCrae (1989) Dichotic Emotional Words Tape.
• Cerebral asymmetry was assessed by analyzing right ear advantage (REA) and left ear advantage (LEA) for emotional words.

Main Results:

• Higher fluency participants demonstrated significantly greater REA and LEA compared to lower fluency participants.
• REA for words was significantly higher than REA for affect.
• LEA for affect was significantly higher than LEA for words.

Conclusions:

• Verbal fluency is associated with enhanced cerebral asymmetry in affect perception.
• The degree of hemispheric specialization differs for processing emotional content versus word identity.
• Findings suggest a complex interplay between language production, emotional processing, and brain lateralization.