Homotopy and heterotopy and the bilateral field advantage in the Dimond paradigm.

Full Abstract

Pairs of homotopic and heterotopic visual bilateral stimuli and pairs of unilateral visual stimuli were presented to 12 normal right-handed university students requiring a key press if they were of the same form. As predicted from the known histology of the corpus callosum (massive preponderance of homotopic fibers), homotopic presentations yielded significantly faster reaction times than heterotopic stimulations. Bilateral pairs of stimuli were also advantaged in comparison with unilateral trials, replicating Sereno and Kosslyn [Sereno, A. B., & Kosslyn, S. M. (1991). Discrimination within and between hemifields: a new constraint on theories of attention. Neuropsychologia, 29, 659-675]. Moreover, certain attentional processes have never been investigated in the Dimond paradigm and this study provides evidence to the effect that discriminative reaction times to stimulus pairs are strongly influenced by their proximity to the fixation point. In similar previous experiments, the homotopy/heterotopy observation and the bilateral field advantage may have been distorted by that particular confound, as well as several others.

Author information

Author/s: Desjardins, Samuel (S); Braun, Claude M J (CM);

Affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience de la Cognition, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, Qué., Canada H3C 3P8.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Acta psychologica (Acta Psychol (Amst)), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Feb; vol 121 (issue 2) : pp 125-36

Dates: Created 2005/12/27; Completed 2006/03/23; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16137627, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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