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Asymmetric Performance during Discrimination of Sound Motion Directions in Dichotic Stimulation Conditions

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Abstract

The study focused on the left–right asymmetry in discriminating moving sound stimuli in dichotic conditions. Healthy adult right-handed participants discriminated the left and right directions of sound motion. A sound stimulus consisted of two parts, a stationary sound at the head midline was followed by a moving sound of a variable duration, which shifted leftward or rightward from the midline. Seven velocities of motion (from 80 to 480 deg/s) were produced by linear changes of interaural time differences (ITDs). The shift was varied from well distinguishable to vanishing values, and the duration of the moving part was decreased in proportion. Hit rates and mean reaction times were measured separately in each of the conditions. As the task complexity increased due to decreasing sound shifts in shorter time, the percentage of rightward responses became higher than that of leftward responses. However, the total amount of leftward responses contained a larger portion of hits. This asymmetry in performance showed no correlation with the consistency of hand preference.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 19-315-90 016) and the Program of Basic Research at the State Academies (project no. GP-14, section 63).

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  1. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    V. V. Semenova, E. A. Petropavlovskaia, L. B. Shestopalova & S. Ph. Vaitulevich

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  1. V. V. Semenova
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  3. L. B. Shestopalova
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Correspondence to V. V. Semenova.

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Statement of compliance with standards of research involving humans as subjects. The study was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments and was approved by the Ethics Committee at St. Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg). All individual participants involved in the study voluntarily signed the informed consent document after being informed about the potential risks and benefits and the nature of the study.

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Translated by T. Tkacheva

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Semenova, V.V., Petropavlovskaia, E.A., Shestopalova, L.B. et al. Asymmetric Performance during Discrimination of Sound Motion Directions in Dichotic Stimulation Conditions. Hum Physiol 47, 506–515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S036211972105011X

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