Hemispheric Asymmetries in Phonological Processing Assessed with Probe Evoked Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Auditory Evoked Magnetic Fields (EFs) to tonal stimuli were recorded at homotopic maxima over the left and right auditory areas in nine subjects. Recordings were made during two conditions, both involving simultaneous presentation of the probe tone stimuli and a set of tape-recorded verbal material. During the control condition subjects were instructed to attend to the tones and ignore the verbal material. In the phonological processing condition they were instructed to ignore the tones and attempt to identify a phonological target item which was embedded in the verbal material. EFs obtained during both conditions were characterized by an early N1m and a later P2m component corresponding to the N1 and P2 components of auditory evoked potentials (EPs). During the phonological condition, the amplitude of the N1m was significantly reduced in both hemispheres symmetrically whereas the amplitude of the P2m was attenuated to a significantly greater degree in the left hemisphere. These data are in agreement with previous EP evidence of greater interference of linguistic processing with processing of irrelevant probe stimuli in the left hemisphere, indicative of greater left hemisphere involvement in language tasks.