Left and right hemisphere involvement in speech perception: Electrophysiological correlates

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were recorded from the left and right hemispheres of 10 adults who were listening to a series of auditory stimuli which varied along linguistic and acoustic dimensions. Discrete components of the brain's electrical response to these different stimuli were isolated and identified. Phonetic distinctions based on transitional elements occurred only in the left hemisphere. Other cortical components were identified which were sensitive to hemisphere differences, place of articulation cues, and formant bandwidth. One component of the brain's activity reflected hand preferences independently of hemispheric differences.