An application used to research sounds simultaneously reaching both ears has turned into a world leading psychological experiment.
Mobile app probes peculiarities of the Estonian ear
10th September 2013, 12:48
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It was a couple of years ago that Josef Bless was walking along, listening to music via earphones linked to his mobile phone. Suddenly, it hit the young scientist: the right ear hears certain instruments, the left ear picking up others. That lead to the idea of creating a mobile app helping to discern which half of the brain is usually used to process sounds heard.
«For most people, one cerebral hemisphere is dominant at processing language,» said Mr Bless, a doctoral student at Bergen University. «Most often it’s the left one.»
Will that hold true with Estonians? Any iPhone or iPad owner is now able to find out, thanks to the free mobile app called iDichotic. The app developed by Mr Bless was adapted for cooperation in the Estonian language by help from University of Tartu psychologists.
«Figuratively speaking, a foreign tongue sounds like music, and it is not processed in the brain’s speech centres that much,» explained Kairi Kreegipuu, a senior research fellow at psychology institute, University of Tartu.
The latest version of the app so far available in Norwegian, English and German, now also featuring Estonian and French, reached the Apple app stores a week ago. The app not having an Android version as yet; however, Mr Bless says it is in the plans.
To find out the dominants half of the brain, the app uses the so-called dichotic listening method: two different syllables reaching the ears at the same moment – one coming into the right, the other into the left ear. Thereafter, the person involved in the test will have to mark, on the screen, which syllable he heard.
In case the person processes languages with the left hemisphere mostly, he will rather hear the syllable coming into his right ear (the ears and hemispheres being connected cross-wise) – and vice versa. It may happen that a person has both hemispheres doing an equal job.
«In addition to satisfying the human curiosity, people are welcome to send their anonymous results into the database,» said Kristiina Kompus, and Estonian working at Bergen University as research fellow.
According to Mr Bless, they have so far received data sent by over 4,000 people, making the app one of the largest neuropsychological experiments in the world. «Getting additional results from Estonia, USA and Japan, say, we may start drawing a language laterality world map, revealing whether processing of language changes according to mother tongue,» said he.
Initial results like comparison of Norwegians and Australians, do point to a slight difference. Ms Kompus cannot wait to hear the results from Estonia – having arrived at quite extraordinary results while testing her own self.
«For a right-handed person, my ear preference is quite rare – namely, I sensed the syllables better in my left ear. That might indeed be a personal trait; even so, it may be possible that Estonians may be somewhat different from speakers of other languages,» said she.
As an example, Ms Kompus refers to processing of consonants at the beginning of a syllable: «As, in Estonian, words rarely start by b, d, or g, the Estonian sound processing may favour syllables starting by the consonants p, t, and k.»