Detecting ear dominance using auditory evoked potentials

Abstract

The ear dominance for pitch described by Elton and Yund [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 59, 889–898 (1976)] has been previously detected only by psychophysical methods. The present report uses the P‐300 component of the auditory evoked potential to identify the magnitude and direction of ear dominance. The method entails the presentation of a series of identical dichotic chords. Randomly interspersed in this series are binaural tones with a frequency somewhere between the left and right ear tones of the dichotic chords. A P‐300 wave is generated only when the binaural tone's pitch is perceptibly different from that of the series of dichotic chords. The results of this method correlate well with psychophysical measures of ear dominance in the same subjects.