Cerebral lateralization of music perception in the dual task paradigm: unfamiliar melody recognition in sinistrals.

A dual task study of unfamiliar music perception during concurrent right and left hand finger tapping was conducted with a group of left-handed non-musicians. A pattern of symmetrical, bilateral suppression of finger tapping was observed during a concurrent music task of unfamiliar melody recognition. There was no evidence of trade-off effects in the dual task inasmuch as no interference in melody recognition was observed. The absence of attentional shifts strongly suggests that the bilateral symmetry in motor performance in the dual task condition reflects bilateralized cerebral organization among sinistrals for processing unfamiliar music.