The representation of aspects of the self in the two cerebral hemispheres

The present study combined a semantic judgment task with the lateralization of verbal stimuli to either the right or left visual field to compare two conceptualizations of the manner in which individuals attribute personality traits to themselves. According to one conceptualization, verbal self-description is mainly a linguistic process and should, therefore, be associated with a left hemisphere advantage. According to the other conceptualization, self-description is principally a function of affective tone and should, therefore, be associated with a right hemisphere (RH) advantage. The results of this study appear mainly to confirm the linguistic account of the lateralization of the process of self-description. An unexpected RH advantage for personality traits that do not describe the self was also uncovered. Structural and dynamic explanations were suggested for these differences in lateralization between self-description and non-self-description.