The present study aimed to reach a consensus about the dominant hemisphere in Theory of Mind (ToM) ability among typical adults. Prior investigations have used both direct (fMRI) and indirect (handedness index) laterality approaches, but the split-visual field technique (SVF) has not been used with the ‘Reading Mind in the Eyes Task’ (RMET). The present study used the SVF technique with selected pictures from the RMET by creating their chimeras. Control tasks included chimeric pictures of eyes and lips from an Indian facial database. The chimeric pictures were administered to a sample of 164 emerging Indian adults. Two sets of analyses were run: a two-way repeated measure ANOVA (task x laterality), and a complex mixed-design analysis using two within-subject factors and one between-subject factor (gender). Post-hoc comparisons were done on the accuracy and reaction time of the responses. For RMET, no hemispheric dominance was identified, however for Indian eye-pic and Indian lips-pic, the right hemisphere was found to be significantly dominating. Results from the second analysis showed no significant gender difference across the task, laterality, or their interaction. No significant difference between the reaction time for tasks could be found. Significant differences were found between left and right chimeric pictures with more reaction time recorded for the right chimeric pictures. We conclude that for a higher-order ToM task like RMET, indirect methods of laterality like SVF are inappropriate. For simple emotion recognition tasks like eye-pic and lips-pic, indirect methods like SVF can yield reliable and significant results.

Authors:
Mohua Das Gupta, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India
Anamitra Basu, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Mohua Das Gupta is a University Doctoral Student at Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar in India

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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