DICHAPTIC SCANNING OF BRAILLE LETTERS BY SKILLED BLIND READERS - LATERALIZATION EFFECTS

Dichaptic scanning of Braille letters was studied in 14 skilled blind readers, using Posner's paradigm. A right-hand (left-hemisphere) advan tage was found when letters could be matched on the basis of their nam es (Name Identity Condition), a genuinely linguistic task, while no ef fects of lateralization appeared when matching could be performed on t he basis of perceptual identity (Perceptual Identity Condition) or on ''Different'' responses. This result provides information about the ce rebral lateralization of Braille reading and casts doubts about the cu rrent claim that linguistic material, when presented in the tactile mo dality, is initially analysed in a spatial code by the right hemispher e.