Interhemispheric Cooperation
Abstract
While functional hemispheric asymmetries in information processing have been known for some time, more recent research has focussed on the specific ways in which the two cerebral hemispheres collaborate in the processing of complex stimuli. Interhemispheric cooperation may be indicated by enhanced performance when stimuli are presented tachistoscopically to both visual fields/hemispheres relative to one visual field alone. Such a “bilateral gain” has been reported for words but not pseudowords in lexical decision tasks, and has been attributed to the operation of interhemispheric cell assemblies that exist only for meaningful words with acquired cortical representations. Similarly, a bilateral gain has been reported for famous but not unfamiliar faces in face recognition tasks. In this line of research we further investigate prerequisites of interhemispheric cooperation in face perception. Particular interest is given to the role of face learning. Of further interest is the question whether interhemispheric cooperation is equally important for other person related information such as emotional expressions and personal names. Behavioural and ERP methods are used to study interhemispheric cooperation and its underlying neural correlates.
