O'Leary D S
Child Dev. 1980 Sep;51(3):743-50.
In light of anatomical evidence that the corpus callosum does not become fully mature until about age 10, the present study attempted to find evidence of a developmental increase in the efficiency with which information is transferred between the 2 hands (hemispheres). Children were tested at ages 5, 7, and 9 on a battery of 4 tasks which measured the interhemispheric transfer of information necessary to (1) perform a simple size discrimination, (2) reproduce a temporal pattern, (3) reproduce a linear motor movement, and (4) reconstruct a 2-dimensional spatial pattern. All tasks were performed without visual guidance and utilized unilateral tactual and/or kinesthetic input and a 1-handed response. 2 tasks--the motor movement task and the spatial pattern task--showed evidence of a developmental increase in interhemispheric transfer, but the developmental pattern seen on these 2 tasks differed. Possible reasons for the between-task differences are discussed as well as their possible developmental implications.
