Visual half-field presentations of incongruent color-words reveal mirror-reversal of language lateralization in dextral and sinistral subjects.

Two experiments are reported concerning identification of left and right hemisphere dominance for language in dextral and sinistral subjects. A visual half-field (VHF) incongruent color-words paradigm was used. Color-words written in incongruent colors were presented either to the right or left half-field. Subjects were instructed to report the color, ignoring the color-word. Vocal reaction time (VRT) and frequency of errors were measured. Twenty dextral adult males were tested in Experiment 1. Results showed significantly more errors and a trend towards longer VRT:s when the words were presented in the right half-field, i.e. initially to the left hemisphere. No differences between half-fields were observed to color-stripes serving as control-stimuli. The results were followed up in Experiment 2 with a preselected sinistral group. All subjects in the sinistral group had revealed a left-ear-advantage (LEA) in a previous dichotic listening test, i.e. right hemisphere language dominance. The results from the VHF inconguent color-words test showed a reverse pattern of responding compared to the dextral group, i.e. more errors and longer VRTs when the color-words were initially presented to the right hemisphere.