Concurrent finger-tapping in mathematically gifted males: evidence for enhanced right hemisphere involvement during linguistic processing.
O'Boyle and Benbow (1990) have suggested that enhanced involvement of the right hemisphere (RH) during basic information processing is a neuropsychologic characteristic of the gifted brain. To provide converging evidence for this hypothesis, the present study was conducted using a concurrent finger-tapping paradigm. Specifically, 24 mathematically precocious and 16 average ability adolescent males were required to tap a key as quickly as possible while sitting silently (baseline condition), concurrently reading a paragraph aloud (verbal load), or encoding a random form into memory (spatial load). For average ability subjects, the concurrent verbal load reduced tapping rate for the right but not the left hand, reflecting a division of LH resources between linguistic processing of the paragraph and motor control of the contralateral hand. In contrast, for gifted subjects, both their left- and right-hand tapping rates were significantly reduced, suggesting that both hemispheres were engaged during verbal processing. The concurrent spatial task produced a small but reliable reduction in finger-tapping rate for both the left and right hand in each group. These findings provide additional support for the notion that enhanced reliance on RH functioning is a physiological correlate of mathematical precocity in gifted males.
O'Boyle
M W
MW
Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
Gill
H S
HS
Benbow
C P
CP
Alexander
J E
JE
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002672:Child, Gifted / Q000523:psychology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011939:Mental Recall; D009043:Motor Activity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D014705:Verbal Behavior