Left ear (right temporal lobe) suppressions during dichotic listening, ego-alien intrusion experiences and spiritualistic beliefs in normal women.
Beliefs in spiritualism, a history of a sensed presence, and mental diplopia may share a common source of psychometric variance. We hypothesized that this variance should be specifically associated with right temporal-lobe function. Inferences of temporal lobe signs, hemisphericity (Vingiano's quotient) and self-esteem as well as dichotic listening measures were obtained for 26 university women. As predicted, the numbers of left-ear suppressions (right temporal-lobe function) but not of right-ear suppressions were specifically and moderately (rho = 0.64) correlated with the intensity of Tobacyk's spiritualistic beliefs and a history of sensed presences and ego-alien intrusions. However, the negative association (rhos about -0.45) between indices of left-right hemisphericity and self-esteem was related to a separate factor.
Lavallée
M R
MR
Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Persinger
M A
MA
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010268:Parapsychology; D012649:Self Concept; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*