Re: 'Speak in my right ear and sing in my left'

[Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxxx>]

Barbara Reynolds wrote:

> Since there may be a definite processing lateralization of the brain at
birth (or prenatally), it is not a big stretch to think that the brain would
exert more control over the contralateral ear than an equal effect on both.


It had previously been established that the final link of this descending
innervation is functional at birth. But there had been no evidence that the
full top-down pathway, from cortex to the inner ear, was functional at
birth.

The new results in the Science article now indicate that this may in fact,
at least partly, be the case. However, the effect that was now reported was
very weak. Only 53.6 % of the infants showed a right ear advantage for
click-train (80/s) evoked emissions, and only 51.75 % of the infants showed
a left ear advantage for tone evoked emissions. Further, only the
click-train results agree with earlier studies. The tone-evoked results are
in conflict with earlier results (as reported in the supplementary online
material of the new article).

Martin

----------------------------
Martin Braun
Neuroscience of Music
S-671 95 Klässbol
Sweden
web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm