Hemispheric asymmetries in perceived depth revealed through a radial line bisection task

Abstract

Research suggests that the left cerebral hemisphere is predisposed for processing stimuli in 'near' space, whereas the right hemisphere is specialised for processing stimuli in 'far' space. This hypothesis was tested directly by asking 25 undergraduates to carry out a landmark radial line bisection task. To test the effect of hemispheric differences in processing, the lines were placed to the left, right or centre within the transverse plane. Consistent with predictions, lines in all three conditions were bisected distal to the true centre. More importantly, there was an asymmetry whereby the distal bias was stronger for lines presented in the left hemispace compared to the right hemispace. The results demonstrate that the perception of depth is affected by left/right placement along the lateral axis and highlight the cognitive/neural interplay between the radial and lateral axes.