Functional cerebral asymmetry and performance. I. Reaction time to words and dot patterns as a function of EEG alpha asymmetry.

Alpha activity in left and right hemispheres was recorded while subjects performed in verbal and nonverbal target detection/reaction time tasks. Alpha in the right hemisphere was paradoxically enhanced during the nonverbal task, but RT varied as a function of differential hemispheric arousal in the expected manner--e.g., RT to words was fastest in the performance set showing greatest relative left hemisphere arousal.