Reliability and Magnitude of Auditory Laterality Effects: The Influence of Attention

Hemispheric asymmetry of the right ear advantage in dichotic listening

“…The fact that reaction time also favored the right ear input was explained by the additional processing time required by a ''stimulus-directed compatibility effect'' (Swanson et al, 1978, p. 274). Additional support for the attentional model is provided by a body of research showing that degree, and even direction, of interaural asymmetry can be substantially altered by a variety of stratagems involving the manipulation of attention (Dean and Hua, 1982;Murray, 1983;Obrzut et al, 1986;Woldorff et al, 1991;Mondor and Bryden, 1991;Obrzut et al, 1993;OÕLeary et al, 1996;Gadea et al, 1997;Obrzut et al, 1999;Yund et al, 1999;Voyer and Flight, 2001;Voyer et al, 2002; but see Asbjornsen et al, 1990) for a counter view. In summary, most of the theoretical posits of the structural model concerning the REA appear have been supported.…”

Atypical right hemispheric functioning in the euthymic state of bipolar affective disorder

“…A simple and reliable technique to study functional hemispheric asymmetries in emotional and non-emotional processing is the dichotic listening paradigm (Hugdahl, 2000;Voyer and Flight, 2001). In dichotic listening, a participant is simultaneously presented with two different auditory stimuli (usually speech) separately to each ear via headphones.…”

A comparison of the effects for sustained versus shifted attention on dichotic listening performance

“…Typically, groups of righthanded adults of both sexes show a non-forced REA that increases when attention is focused on the right ear and decreases, or switches to a left ear advantage (LEA), when attention is oriented to the left ear. These results have been observed when applying both the sustained (Asbjö rnsen & Hugdahl, 1995;Bloch & Hellige, 1989;Bryden, Munhall, & Allard, 1983;Foundas, Corey, Hurley, & Heilman, 2006;Hugdahl & Andersson, 1986) and the shifted (Mondor & Bryden 1991;Voyer & Flight, 2001) attention procedures. Moreover, focusing attention to either ear in DL also changes patterns of brain activation in some ''attention network'' areas, with increased activation in the parietal lobe contralateral to the cued ear .…”

“…This experimental setting was designed to accomplish several aims: (a) to look for the increase in hits versus the decrease in intrusions from the baseline to the FA performance, (b) to observe the possibility of individual differences in sex or manual preference in performance, and finally (c), given that some reports have argued that the sustained procedure is rather ineffective in orienting attention (Mondor & Bryden, 1991;Voyer & Flight, 2001), to search for any differences among the FA conditions regarding hits and intrusions. It is worth noting here that there are no contributions to the literature comparing sustained versus shifted attention with respect to a free recall task in a repeated measures design fashion.…”