SPUR Project

2009 Winner (13 of 13)

Hemispheric Specialisation and Interhemispheric Cooperation: An Integrated Neuropsychological Perspective of Linguistic Processing
Supervisor: Dr Antonio Castro

The two cerebral hemispheres tend to be specialised for the performance of different psychological functions. The left hemisphere is generally superior at processing linguistic information (Corina, Vaid & Bellugi 1992), whereas the right hemisphere is dominant at processing geometric patterns (Joseph 1988). This is shown in neuropsychological studies using the divided visual field paradigm (Bourne 2006), which taps into the anatomically crossed visual system, in the way of a right visual field advantage for words and a left visual field advantage for shapes. It is also well established that when identical information is presented to both visual fields, healthy participants exhibit a bilateral gain (Barnett, Kirk & Corballis 2007) consistent with facilitated interhemispheric cooperation. Following on from these neuropsychological findings, the project studied the processing of linguistic information at a high (semantic) level and at a basic (photographic/image-like) level. The main aim was to find the extent of any differences in hemispheric specialisation and interhemispheric cooperation at both word processing levels. Student tasks included a literature review, assistance with checking and approval or improvement of proposed experimental design, generation of stimuli and programming of computer experiments using Superlab, recruitment of participants, data collection using the divided visual field paradigm, quantitative data analysis using SPSS, write-up of results for dissemination. Opportunities were made available for the student to co-author a journal article and poster presentation.