Interhemispheric Asymmetry, Visual Learning and Invariant Identification of Images

Abstract

Using a blockade of the communication between the hemispheres, the rate of learning to recognize figures and the invariance of their identification were studied for both hemispheres. The size and the orientation of figures were changed and a compression of figures was performed during the investigation of the invariance. Visual recognition of both memorized and modified images involved predominantly the right hemisphere in most subjects. A few subjects displayed a prevalence of the left or neither hemisphere. In different subjects, the degree of invariance did not correlate with constant interhemispheric differences. In subjects with a predominance of the right hemisphere, changes of figures substantially affected the identification in the right hemisphere. The opposite result was observed in subjects with a predominance of the left hemisphere. The data are discussed from the viewpoint of double dichotomy of the visual brain. There is reason to suppose an inverted hemispheric location of mechanisms of spatial-frequency analysis and specific description of a visual image in some subjects with the predominance of the left hemisphere.