Previous investigators reported that auditory association cortex is usually larger within the left than within the right hemisphere, even in the newborn. They suggested that this asymmetry could play a causal role in the predominant tendency for language processes to lateralize in the left rather than in the right hemisphere. For congenitally deaf persons, however, the role of auditory association area asymmetry presumably would be nullified. This question was addressed by comparing the performances of congenitally deaf college students and hearing persons on lateralized tachistoscopic tasks thought to reflect hemispheric language and spatial processing efficiencies. The results indicated that indicated that congenitally deaf Ss showed minimal half-field asymmetries for both English word stimuli and for American Sign Language stimuli (drawings of hand configurations representing letters and words for the deaf Ss). Results were interpreted as supporting auditory experience as a major determinant of cerebral functional asymmetries and as contradictory to clinical reports that had suggested that the cerebral organization of “communicative” functions were entirely comparable in deaf and hearing persons.