Developmental trends in right hemispheric participation in reading

Abstract

Behavioral laterality tasks assessed the differential processing efficiencies of the cerebral hemispheres in younger and older reading-age children. Lateralized lexical decision task findings supported a “direct access” model of hemispheric processing for the younger children whereas the older children demonstrated a “callosal relay” pattern. A dual-task with oral and silent reading indicated that the right hand was significantly more disrupted than the left during unimanual finger tapping. The findings suggest that although the left hemisphere’s involvement during reading is developmentally stable, the involvement of the right hemisphere appears to change dynamically as reading experience increases.