Altered lateralization of cognitive processes in depressed women.
Eighteen normal men and women had a left hemisphere advantage for processing a verbal task, but depressed women showed a trend toward right hemisphere superiority. In depression the right hemisphere may share functions performed exclusively by the left hemisphere in normal subjects. Altered laterality may be a trait of depression-prone people or a change related to depressive episodes themselves. In the latter case, the right hemisphere may be compensating for relative deactivation of the dominant left hemisphere.
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading