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Biomedical subjects

M W O'Boyle

Publications and source records attributed to M W O'Boyle.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Enhanced right hemisphere activation in the mathematically precocious: a preliminary EEG investigation.

A preliminary electroencephalographic (EEG) investigation was conducted to determine if the pattern of hemispheric activation in mathematically precocious youth differs from that of average math ability subjects. Alpha activity at four brain sites (frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes) over the left and right cerebral hemispheres (LH/RH) was monitored while 12- to 14-year-old, right-handed males: (a) looked at a blank slide (baseline condition), (b) judged which of two chimeric faces was "happier," and (c) determined if a word was a noun or a verb. At baseline, the LH of the precocious group was found to be more active at all four brain sites relative to that of the average ability group. During chimeric face processing, the gifted subjects exhibited a significant reduction in alpha power over the RH, primarily at the temporal lobe, while no such alpha suppression was observed in the average ability subjects. For noun/verb determinations, no significant alpha power reductions were obtained for either group. These electrophysiological data generally corroborate the behavioral findings of O'Boyle and Benbow (1990a) and support their contention that enhanced RH involvement during cognitive processing may be a correlate of mathematical precocity. Moreover, the pattern of activation observed across tasks suggests that the ability to effectively coordinate LH and RH processing resources at an early age may be linked to intellectual giftedness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Enhanced right hemisphere involvement during cognitive processing may relate to intellectual precocity.

In the present study, intellectually precocious and average ability youths performed a dichotic listening task (Experiment 1) and a free-vision chimeric face task (Experiment 2). Patterns of hemispheric lateralization and the relative involvement of the left and right hemispheres during cognitive processing were assessed. In Experiment 1, the average ability youths demonstrated a right ear/left hemisphere (re/LH) superiority for identification of CV syllables, while the gifted subjects failed to show any ear/hemisphere advantage. In Experiment 2, members of both groups tended to judge the leftside smile/rightside neutral half-faces as "happier", a pattern indicative of enhanced right hemisphere (RH) arousal. Notably, the degree of RH involvement was significantly greater in the gifted as compared to average ability youths. Moreover, laterality scores of the precocious on the chimeric face task correlated with their performance on the College Board Scholastic Aptitude test (SAT), i.e. the greater the leftward bias, the higher the SAT score. These findings, taken in composite, suggest that a high level of RH involvement during cognitive processing may be related to intellectual precocity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

How knowledge of the song influences the matching of "melodies" to rhythm sequences tapped in the right and left palms.

Previous work by O'Boyle and Sanford (1988) has demonstrated that the right hemisphere (RH) is superior to the left hemisphere (LH) in the matching of tape-recorded melodies to rhythm sequences tapped in the palms of the hands. This asymmetrical advantage was attributed to a RH superiority in the perceptual processing of intonation as compared to the rhythm component of these musical stimuli. In the present study, subjects were taught that the monotone sound of two wooden drumsticks struck together in a specified rhythm actually represented non-melodic translations of songs with identifiable melodies. After such mental associations had been formed, these non-melodic stimuli (which produced no asymmetric performance in Exp. 2 of the O'Boyle and Sanford study), now produced a RH advantage that was comparable to that induced by the original melodies. This finding suggests that the physical presence of intonation and its subsequent perceptual analysis, are not necessarily critical to the RH advantage reported by O'Boyle and Sanford (1988). Rather, the asymmetry may be related to a superior ability of the RH to generate and/or manipulate echoic images in memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Sound-meaning relationships in speakers of Urdu and English: evidence for a cross-cultural phonetic symbolism.

Twelve English- and 12 Urdu-speaking males, ranging in age from 18 to 30 years, were asked to assign pure-tone frequencies as a "best fit" to visually presented shapes. Six basic figures were employed (circle, ellipse, right triangle, isosceles triangle, along with two historical psycholinguistic forms--uloomu and takete) and varied on three dimensions of size, complexity, and density. The results of the study indicate that there was consistency in the assignment of pure-tone frequencies to the dimensions of the figures and that the pattern of assignment was generally similar for both English- and Urdu-speaking subjects alike. Specifically, for both language groups, round figures (circles and ellipses) were assigned significantly lower frequencies than other stimuli. Also, complex and dense figures (i.e., those designed to simulate "visual depth" and "visual texture," respectively) received significantly higher frequency settings than those stimuli not possessing these dimensions. Additional analyses revealed several factors that may have contributed to the observed pattern. For example, Urdu subjects of the English proficiency produced frequency assignments that closely resembled those of the English-speaking subjects, while subjects of low English proficiency produced a pattern that was somewhat different, particularly with regard to round, complex figures. Length of residency in the United States (6 months, 1 year, or 2 years), however, did not significantly influence frequency assignments for the Urdu subjects. These results are discussed in terms of "cross-cultural" versus "language-specific" phonetic symbolism.

Adolescent↗