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Dichotic listening and sleep deprivation: Vigilance effects
Author(s) -
Helge Johnsen Bjørn,
Christian Laberg Jon,
Eid Jarle,
Hugdahl Kenneth
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00309
Subject(s) - dichotic listening , psychology , audiology , vigilance (psychology) , stimulus (psychology) , sleep deprivation , lateralization of brain function , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , cognition , medicine , neuroscience
Twelve sleep–deprived and 13 non–deprived Navy cadets were tested with the dichotic listening procedure for effects of sleep deprivation on hemispheric asymmetry and sustained attention. Consonant–vowel syllables were presented to the subjects in three different conditions, a divided (non–forced) attention condition, a forced right ear and a forced left ear attention condition. In the two forced attention conditions the subjects were instructed to focus attention only on the right or left ear stimulus. The results showed an expected right ear advantage for both groups during the non–forced and forced right attention conditions, indicating superior left hemisphere processing. During the forced left attention condition, the sleep–deprived subjects showed no ear advantage at all, while the non–deprived subjects showed an expected left ear advantage. The results are discussed within a theoretical framework of a dual process model, where sleep deprivation disrupts the ability to sustain attention, caused by a temporary failure of the right hemisphere’s top–down (instruction–driven) processing to override the left hemisphere’s bottom–up (stimulus–driven) processing.