SATO Wataru Laboratory

Right hemispheric dominance and interhemispheric cooperation in reflexive attentional shift by gaze

(Okada T, Sato W, Kubota, Y., Toichi, M., & Murai, T.: Psychiatry Clin Neurosci)

The neural substrate for the processing of gazes remains unknown.
This study was conducted to clarify which hemisphere dominantly processes and whether bilateral hemispheres cooperate with each other in gaze-triggered reflexive shift of attention.

Twenty-eight normal subjects were tested.
The non-predictive gaze cues were presented either in unilateral or bilateral visual fields.
The subjects localized the target as soon as possible.

Reaction times (RTs) were shorter when gaze-cues were congruent toward than away from targets, whichever visual field they were presented in.
RTs were shorter in left than right visual field presentations.
RTs in mono-directional bilateral presentations were shorter than both of those in left and right presentations.
When bi-directional bilateral cues were presented, RTs were faster when valid cues were presented in the left than right visual fields.

These findings suggest the right hemispheric dominance and interhemispheric cooperation in gaze-triggered reflexive shift of attention.

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