Interhemispheric inhibition, intrahemispheric activation, and lexical capacities of the right hemisphere: a tachistoscopic, divided visual-field study in normal subjects.
This study proposes that the lexical-semantic capacities of the right hemisphere (RH) are underestimated in normal subjects and reexamines them in a "dynamic model" framework. As expected, overloading the left hemisphere by combining a lexical-decision task presented in divided visual field with a concurrent heavy verbal memory load, and activating the RH by combining the lexical-decision task with a concurrent visuo-imaged memory load, lead to enhanced left visual field-RH lexical performance. The RH appears to support a larger lexical-semantic network than suggested in the literature, including representations for long and nonimageable words, and the accessibility threshold for the representations stored therein is modulated by hemispheric activation-inhibition mechanisms.
Querné
L
L
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive et Pathologique, Université de Caen, Caen, France.
Eustache
F
F
Faure
S
S
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation; D012660:Semantics; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary