What can be learned about brain function from dichotic listening

A series of studies on the use of dichotic listening as a method to study brain-behavior interactions, including hemispheric asymmetry are reviewed. The dichotic listening method is presented from a historical perspective, followed by an outline of the empirical procedure used in our laboratory. Different methods of validating the dichotic listening procedure against both invasive and non-invasive techniques, including PET blood flow recordings are then presented. The paper is ended with some examples of clinical applications of the dichotic listening technique on brain damaged patients. A major argument in the present paper is that the dichotic listening technique is a method to study the interaction between bottom-up, or stimulus-driven, versus top-down, or instruction-driven laterality. This opens up for a more dynamic and interactive view of brain laterality than the traditional static view that the brain is lateralized only for specific stimuli and stimulus properties.

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