Past events: René Westerhausen. Auditory laterality and hemispheric integration: a dichotic-listening perspective

What: Auditory laterality and hemispheric integration: a dichotic-listening perspective

Where: BCBL Auditorium and zoom room # 2 (If you would like to attend to this meeting reserve at info@bcbl.eu)

Who: Professor René Westerhausen, PhD; Department of Psychology; University of Oslo, Norway.

When:  Thursday,  June 15th at 12:00 PM noon.

The term “dichotic listening” refers to a class of experimental paradigms in which pairs of verbal stimuli (e.g., consonant-vowel syllables, like /ba/ or /da/) are presented simultaneously, one of the two stimuli presented to the left ear, and the other one presented to the right ear. When asked to report the stimulus heard best, participants typically report the right-ear stimulus more accurately and faster than the left-ear stimulus. In the present talk, I will briefly introduce the dichotic method and summarize recent evidence for that the direction of the ear advantage, is a valid indicator for hemispheric language lateralisation. Further, I will argue that the number of stimuli recalled from the inferior ear (usually the left) is a suitable index for inter-hemispheric integration across the corpus callosum, both intra- and inter-individually. The talk will conclude with some suggestions for how an “optimal paradigm” should be designed to assess both laterality and callosal integration.