An EaRitating Task

One of the most interesting things about the brain is the different functions of the right and left hemisphere. For example, those with damage to the left hemisphere might experience difficulties in speaking or writing (Cohen et al. 2008). In some cases, researchers study patients with brain damage to better understand the role of certain areas in the brain. For example, Wernicke discovered that those who suffered damage to the left temporal lobe were not able to make coherent sentences when speaking (Dewitt and Rauschecker 2013).

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Perhaps you are at a party, where many individuals are chatting around the room. You are able to catch a couple of phrases from one conversation, and a couple from another. However, have you ever thought about whether you pay more attention to the information coming into the right ear or the left ear? The preference of one side of the body over another is known as laterality. In particular, I would like to investigate auditory laterality by performing a dichotic listening task on participants.