TY - JOUR
T1 - Lateralisation of language and spatial skills is not affected by task difficulty
T2 - Australasian Cognitive Neurosciences Conference (21st : 2011)
AU - Badcock, Nicholas
AU - Nye, Abigail
AU - Rosch, Richard
AU - Bishop, Dorothy V. M.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - We used functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) to assess the effect of task difficulty on cerebral lateralisation during language and spatial tasks in typical adults. Auditory naming was used to examine language lateralisation: participants were presented with short auditory definition and asked to provide a speeded, verbal, single-word response of the defined word. Difficulty was manipulated by varying word frequency. A modified land-mark task was used to examine spatial lateralisation: participants were presented with series of backward-masked, inverted 'T' displays and asked to make a speeded response as to the left or right position of the vertical line. Difficulty was manipulated by the presentation duration and proximity of the vertical line to the centre of the display. Behavioural responses were consistent with the difficulty manipulations; for auditory naming, accuracy was higher and response times were faster for high frequency words; for the land-mark task, accuracy was higher and response times were faster for long presentation durations and wider spatial proximities. Despite the expected behavioural differentiation, fTCD lateralisation was not influenced by task difficulty for either ability.
AB - We used functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) to assess the effect of task difficulty on cerebral lateralisation during language and spatial tasks in typical adults. Auditory naming was used to examine language lateralisation: participants were presented with short auditory definition and asked to provide a speeded, verbal, single-word response of the defined word. Difficulty was manipulated by varying word frequency. A modified land-mark task was used to examine spatial lateralisation: participants were presented with series of backward-masked, inverted 'T' displays and asked to make a speeded response as to the left or right position of the vertical line. Difficulty was manipulated by the presentation duration and proximity of the vertical line to the centre of the display. Behavioural responses were consistent with the difficulty manipulations; for auditory naming, accuracy was higher and response times were faster for high frequency words; for the land-mark task, accuracy was higher and response times were faster for long presentation durations and wider spatial proximities. Despite the expected behavioural differentiation, fTCD lateralisation was not influenced by task difficulty for either ability.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/1550059412444821
M3 - Meeting abstract
VL - 43
SP - 223
EP - 224
JO - Journal of Clinical EEG and Neuroscience : Abstracts of peer-reviewed presentations at the Australasian Cognitive Neurosciences Conference (20th meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology), November 26-29, 2010, Swinburne University of Techn
JF - Journal of Clinical EEG and Neuroscience : Abstracts of peer-reviewed presentations at the Australasian Cognitive Neurosciences Conference (20th meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology), November 26-29, 2010, Swinburne University of Techn
SN - 1550-0594
IS - 3
Y2 - 9 December 2011 through 12 December 2011
ER -