The Role of High Spatial Frequencies in Hemispheric Processing of Categorical and Coordinate Spatial Relations

Abstract

Right-handed participants performed categorical and coordinate spatial relation tasks on stimuli presented either to the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH) or to the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH). The stimuli were either unfiltered or low-pass filtered (i.e., devoid of high spatial frequency content). Consistent with previous studies, the unfiltered condition produced a significant RVF-LH advantage for the categorical task and an LVF-RH advantage for the coordinate task. Low-pass filtering eliminated this Task x Visual Field interaction; thus, the RVF-LH advantage disappeared for the categorical task. The present results suggest that processing of high spatial frequency contributes to the left hemispheric advantage for categorical spatial processing.