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Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 1963, Vol. 56, No. 5, 899-902

SPEECH LATERALIZATION IN YOUNG CHILDREN AS DETERMINED BY AN AUDITORY TEST1

DOREEN KIMURA2 Montreal Neurological Institute Spoken digits were presented to children in such a way that different digits arrived simultaneously at the 2 ears. Previous studies with adults had shown that digits arriving at the right ear are more accurately reported than digits arriving at the left; this effect depends on the fact that speech is represented in the left hemisphere. The present study demonstrated the right-ear effect for boys and girls as early as age 4. Boys achieved lower total scores than girls at the early ages. These findings suggest that the left hemisphere is dominant for speech by age 4, for both sexes, but boys nevertheless lag behind girls in development of speech perception.

It has been shown that when different spoken digits are presented simultaneously to the two ears, those digits arriving at the ear opposite the dominant hemisphere are more efficiently recognized (Kimura, 1961a). In a group of neurological patients with speech represented in the left hemisphere, the right ear was more efficient; in a smaller group of patients with speech represented in the right hemisphere, the left ear was more efficient. These results were independent of handedness. The findings were consistent with other studies suggesting that the crossed auditory pathways in man are more effective than the uncrossed (Kimura, 1961b; Sinha, 1959) and that the left temporal lobe plays a greater part in the perception of spoken material than does the right temporal lobe (Kimura, 1961b; Milner, 1958). For a group of normal control Ss, in whom the left hemisphere was assumed to be dominant, the right ear was also more efficient. The greater efficiency of the right ear for spoken digits, then, has been shown to depend on the organization of speech representation in the left hemisphere. The technique of presenting verbal material dichotically can thus be used to investigate many aspects of cerebral dominance which previously could be studied only clinically.
This paper was presented at the 1962 meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Atlantic City. The investigation was supported by Grant B-2831 to Brenda Milner from the United States Public Health Service. 2 Now at the Neurochirurgische Klinik, Kantonsspital, Zurich, Switzerland.
1

There is a widely held belief, based on clinical observations of aphasia after damage to the left hemisphere, that speech representation is relatively fixed in one hemisphere in the adult, but the chronologic development of such hemispheric organization is not known. Handedness, once thought to be a reliable index of speech representation, is no longer so considered (Goodglass & Quadfasel, 1954; Rasmussen, Branch, & Milner, 1963). It was decided, therefore, to present the auditory test described above to young children in an effort to discover when the right-ear superiority first appears, and thus to gain indirectly some information about the age at which speech becomes lateralized in the brain. METHOD Subjects
The 5s were 145 normal children, aged 4-9 yr. The 4-yr.-olds were tested at a nursery school in a residential area and most of the other children were tested in an elementary school in the same area. The /Ss for each age group were chosen at random from the total number of children at that age level. Every attempt was made to keep the sample unselected, with two reservations: (a) Children with known hearing impairment were not tested, (fa) The number of boys and girls was kept roughly equivalent. The children at this school were subsequently found to be of above average intelligence, as determined from school records. Of the 145 Ss, 25 left-handed Ss were omitted from the main analyses, since there are strong reasons for believing that the incidence of rightsided speech representation is higher in natural left-handers than in natural right-handers (Goodglass & Quadfasel, 1954; Rasmussen et al., 1963). The bulk of the data reported in the present study is therefore based on the 120 right-handed

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900

DOREEN KIMURA TABLE 1 MEAN NUMBER OP DIGITS CORRECTLY REPORTED FOR EACH EAR velopmental progression for greater left-thumb sensitivity which was different in girls and boys.

Group

Left

Eight

/
2.75* 2.71* 2.83* 3.65** 4.37** 2.63*

Age 4: F M Age 5: F M Age 6: F M Age 7: F M Age 8: F M Age 9: F M

* v < * P <
.05. .01.

11 6

23.2 16.0 32.9 25.6 39.3 35.7 45.8 44.1 48.9 50.2 52.4 52.9

35.8 30.0 44.1 38.6 53.3 44.9 50.0 49.9 54.7 55.0 55.1 55.5

9 8

10 10
9 11

1.31 2.51*
4.30** 3.84**

13 10 12 11

2.09 3.71**

Ss. Although an attempt was made to have at least 10 & in each age-sex grouping, this was not always possible,-one reason being the subsequent omission of left-handed Ss.

Procedure
Each S was seen alone in a room separate from his classroom. The test was presented to him by means of a dual-channel tape recorder and earphones. The material consisted of spoken digits, most of which were presented in pairs in such a way that different digits arrived simultaneously at the two ears (Broadbent, 1954). A group of digits consisted of one pair, two pairs, or three pairs of digits, and after each group of numbers S simply reported what he had heard, in any order he liked. Each channel of the tape recorder was set at a comfortable standard volume, and this volume was checked by E before each session in which 6-12 Sa would be tested. For half the Ss in each age-sex group, the earphones were reversed so that any remaining asymmetries in the tape or apparatus were counterbalanced. The total number of digits presented was 120, making a total possible score of 60 for each ear. In addition to this main study, pressure sensitivity of each thumb was measured with a set of Von Frey hairs. The method employed was that used by Ghent (1961) but with only one ascending and one descending trial. Semmes, Weinstein, Ghent, and Teuber (1960) have reported that in adults the left thumb is more sensitive to pressure than the right thumb, and Weinstein and Sersen (1961) provide indirect evidence that the lower threshold of the left thumb is related to the greater role of the minor hemisphere in pressure sensitivity functions. This measure was included in the present study because Ghent had found a de-

RESULTS The difference between scores for the two ears was evaluated throughout with the t test. For each age group tested, digits arriving at the right ear are more efficiently recognized than digits arriving at the left ear (Table 1), and there is no difference between boys and girls in this respect. There is a decrease in the difference between ears in the older age groups which can probably be attributed to the higher overall efficiency on the test. That is, the higher the total score achieved, the less scope there is for a difference between ears. The present test is much easier than the one used by the author for normal adults, in whom there is a significant difference in favor of the right ear (Kimura, 1961a). When one considers the total score achieved on the test (Table 2), boys are significantly inferior to girls at ages five and six (as measured by the t test) but not beyond this age. The 4-yr.-old Ss were difficult to test, and two of them (one boy and one girl) did not complete the task. The data on total score for age four is thus based on only five boys and 10 girls. The difference between boys and girls at this age, though not significant, is approximately equal in magnitude to the difference obtained at ages five and six. On thumb sensitivity it was not possible to obtain a reliable threshold for the 4-yr.old children. Data on the other age groups are based on fewer Ss than are shown for the auditory task because, in the initial phase of the study, thumb sensitivity was not measured. Moreover, because only one ascending and one descending trial was
TABLE 2 MEAN TOTAL SCORE FOR EACH AGE-SEX GROUP
Age 4 5 F M

6 7 8 9
* p < .05.

63.4 77.0 92.6 95.8 103.6 107.5

52.4 64.3 80.6 94.0 105.2 108.4

1.35 2.52* 2.11* .35 .50 .27

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SPEECH LATERALIZATION IN CHILDREN

901

given, the data are probably less reliable than Ghent's (1961). Within these limitations, however, the results obtained in this study are in agreement with Ghent's on the main pointthat the greater sensitivity of the left thumb occurs earlier in girls than in boys. Left-thumb sensitivity first appears in 6-yr.-old girls, though the difference between thumbs is not significant in the present study. The only group for which a significant difference between thumbs is obtained is the group of 9-yr.-old girls. The 9-yr.-old boys show no tendency for the left thumb to be more sensitive. DISCUSSION The present results indicate that, as early as age four, spoken material arriving at the right ear is more accurately reported than spoken material arriving at the left, suggesting that left cerebral dominance for speech is established by the age of four, and probably earlier. This conclusion appears to conflict with clinical reports that left-sided brain damage in children, even when it occurs as late as age six, does not permanently affect speech, and that lesions of the right hemisphere result in aphasia more frequently in children than in adults (Basser, 1962). The foregoing facts suggest some participation of the right hemisphere in speech functions in the child, and have led Zangwill (1960) to propose that left cerebral dominance is established gradually during childhood. The conflict between the clinical findings and the data reported here, however, is not irreconcilable. The present study strongly indicates an early prepotence of the left hemisphere for speech functions, but it does not rule out participation of the right hemisphere. The further fact of recovery from aphasia after left-sided damage may mean only that speech representation is less rigidly established in children than in adults. Zangwill's statement concerning the gradual development of dominance may therefore stand with reference to the development of irreversible asymmetry of the two hemispheres. The preceding statements have been concerned with the lateralization of speech in the left hemisphere. The question then arises, when does the analogous lateraliza-

tion of certain nonverbal abilities to the right hemisphere take place? Ghent's (1961) study on the development of thumb sensitivity suggests that one of the functions which is to become more dependent on the minor hemisphere is not so established until age six in girls and even later in boys, i.e., later than the first occurrence of the right-ear effect in children. The two studies taken together raise the possibility that cerebral dominance for speech is established before cerebral dominance for nonverbal abilities. It appears, at least, that the allocation of certain speech functions to the left hemisphere (as indicated by the rightear effect) precedes the allocation of some aspects of nonverbal somesthetic function to the right hemisphere (as indicated by left-thumb sensitivity). These results must be interpreted with caution. A strong objection to the comparison of Ghent's study and the present one is that they employed measures in different sense modalitiesin somesthesis and audition. Thus it cannot, on the basis of these two studies alone, be concluded that all verbal functions which become to some degree lateralized do so before all nonverbal functions which become lateralized. To establish conclusively the priority of speech lateralization, the asymmetries in perception resulting from specialization of the two hemispheres should be studied within one sense modality, i.e., within the auditory modality one should discover whether leftright differences in perception occur for verbal material before nonverbal. Such a study must await the development of an auditory task more dependent on the right (nondominant) hemisphere, which can be presented dichotically to young children. Sex Differences in the Development of Speech It was expected, on the basis of Ghent's (1961) study, that boys might develop the right-ear effect later than girls. No such sex difference was found in the age range tested. It is still possible that a sex difference might appear if younger children could be studied, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to test 3-yr.-old children. However, at the age of four, boys are significantly better on the right ear than on the left, and there

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902

DOREEN KIMURA

is no trend for this effect to disappear at the early ages, for boys or girls. In fact, the difference between ears is accentuated in the very young children. There is thus no evidence from these data that speech becomes represented in the left hemisphere any later in boys than in girls, though the possibility cannot be ruled out. Although no significant sex difference was obtained for the right-ear effect, there was a difference between boys and girls in overall efficiency on the task. This difference was evident at age four, but it did not achieve statistical significance; it was significant at ages five and six, disappeared at age seven, and did not reappear at ages eight or nine. Sex differences in cognitive abilities have been extensively reviewed by Terman and Tyler (1954). There is evidence that girls excel boys in almost all speaking skills, at least in the early years. The present study suggests that boys lag behind girls in the perception of speech sounds as well as in their production. That this is simply a slower development, rather than a permanent difference, is indicated by the fact that the difference disappears at age seven. Similar findings led McCarthy to suggest that, with regard to language ability, girls "go through the developmental cycle more rapidly than do boys, but both arrive eventually at approximately the same level" (McCarthy, 1930, p. 82). Another suggestion of a sex difference in the present study was found among the left-handed children. Of the 11 left-handed girls, 10 were more efficient on the right ear (the normal effect), and one showed no difference between ears. Of the 14 lefthanded boys, only nine were more efficient on the right ear, and the other five were more efficient on the left ear, a finding typical of Ss with speech represented in the right hemisphere (Kimura, 1961a). With such small numbers as the above, no definite conclusions can be drawn, but a more comprehensive comparison of left-handed girls and left-handed boys might repay investigation. Pertinent to this line of thought is a study by Taylor (1962) in which digits were presented dichotically to children with reading disorders. The findings again indicated atypical speech later-

alization in the boys of this group but not in the girls. Thus although there is no evidence at present that normal right-handed boys develop speech lateralization differently from girls, there may be such a sex difference in children who show other signs of irregular cerebral organization.
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