Laterality effects in the processing of syllable structure.

Recent phonological research has shown that the syllable plays a major role in the phonology of German. The present study investigates laterality effects in the processing of syllable structure by means of dichotic presentation of German word pairs that differ in number of syllables, but that differ minimally in the phonemes they comprise (e.g., BREIT and BEREIT). Results showed a sex difference in laterality for the processing of the experimental stimuli, with a greater right-hemispheric lateralization in men and a more bilateral organization in women.