PROGRESS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF LATERALITY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DYSLEXIA RESEARCH

Much of contemporary laterality research has been motivated by a need to increase the accuracy with which individuals can be classified as l eft- or right-hemisphere dominant for speech and language. Efforts to improve the classification accuracy of laterality methods have led not only to the refinement of laterality methods but also to the discover y of some of the mechanisms that contribute to asymmetric performance. Despite these advances, laterality methods still do not lead to defin itive conclusions about hemispheric specialization in the individual c ase, and special caution must be used when interpreting results for in dividual dyslexic children. Event-related measurements of cerebral met abolism, still in the development phase, promise to complement but not replace behavioral laterality methods.