The effect of handedness in tactile speech perception

Abstract

This study examined differential performance of normally hearing subjects using a tactile device on the dominant versus non-dominant hand. The study evaluated whether tactual sensitivity for non-speech stimuli was greater for the dominant hand as compared with the non-dominant hand, and secondly, whether there was an advantage for speech presented tactually to the dominant hand, resulting from a preferential pathway to the language processing area in the left cerebral hemisphere. Evaluations of threshold pulse width, dynamic ranges, paired electrode identification, and a closed-set tactual pattern discrimination test battery showed no difference in tactual sensitivity measures between the tw..