Lateralization of Lexical Processes in the Normal Brain: A Review of Visual Half-field Research

The extent to which the right hemisphere can subserve language functions is one of the most hotly debated issues in neuropsychology today, as witnessed by the lively interchanges which have appeared in several recent journals (Gazzaniga, 1983a, 1983b; Levy, 1983; Zaidel, 1983b; Myers, 1984; Patterson & Besner, 1984a, 1984b; Rabinowicz & Moscovitch, 1984; Zaidel & Schweiger, 1984). A focal issue in this controversy concerns right hemisphere involvement in the recognition of visually presented words, and much of the debate has turned on differing interpretations of evidence from commissurotomy and acquired dyslexia. Some have argued for extensive participation of the right hemisphere (Coltheart, 1980a; Zaidel, 1983b), while others find little reason to presume any significant role for the right hemisphere (Patterson & Besner, 1984a, 1984b; Gazzaniga, 1983a, 1983b). In the context of such discussions it is somewhat surprising that evidence from lateralization studies with neurologically normal individuals has been given only piecemeal consideration. For more than a decade researchers have been exploring the consequences of selectively stimulating the cerebral hemispheres by using tachistoscopic methods, with words being the most frequently employed stimuli. Any comprehensive model of hemisphere differences in lexical processing must encompass the results of such studies in addition to the evidence from neurologically compromised subjects.

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