REPRESSION AND CEREBRAL LATERALITY - A STUDY OF SELECTIVE HEMISPHERICACTIVATIONS

Twenty-four right-handed female students were divided, by means of a m edian split on the Defense Mechanism Inventory repression (REP) index, in a high-REP and a low-REP group. All subjects participated in a tac histoscopic unilateral letter recognition task. There were three condi tions of concurrent word presentation. In the neutral condition, neutr al words were presented in central fixation prior to each lateral stim ulus. In the negative and positive conditions, negative and positive w ords were used. During the neutral condition the low-REP group showed a right visual field advantage for letter recognition, whereas the hig h-REP group showed a left visual field advantage. The deviation of the high-REP group from the expected field advantage is thought to be ass ociated with the experienced stress of the task situation. During both emotional word conditions, the high-REP group exhibited significant p erformance enhancements in the right visual field. It is hypothesized that this activation of the left hemisphere indicates that repression is a function of this hemipshere. During the negative word condition, the high-REP group exhibited a performance decrement in the left visua l field, while the low-REP group tended to show a performance decremen t in the right visual field. Apparently, in high-REP subjects the righ t hemisphere is inhibited during the negative condition, whereas in lo w-REP subjects the left hemisphere is inhibited.