Impact of task difficulty on lateralization of pitch and duration discrimination.
To investigate lateralization of duration and pitch discrimination processing with emphasis on the influences of task difficulty, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Seventeen healthy volunteers performed paired auditory discrimination tasks at varying levels of difficulty. Analysis of lateralization effects revealed leftward lateralization within the insular and the temporal cortex under both conditions. Moreover, parametric analysis of haemodynamic responses showed increasing activation within the right temporal cortex correlated to increasing accuracy of stimulus discrimination. Thus, highly differential acoustic stimuli seem to be predominantly processed within the right hemisphere, whereas the detection of slight signal differences might be linked to the left hemisphere. In conclusion, we found evidence for preferential involvement of the right hemisphere in holistic feature processing within the auditory domain.
Reiterer
Susanne M
SM
Department of General Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler Str. Tübingen, Germany. Susanne.Reiterer@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Erb
Michael
M
Droll
Christina D
CD
Anders
Silke
S
Ethofer
Thomas
T
Grodd
Wolfgang
W
Wildgruber
Dirk
D
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*
D010100:Oxygen