Brain asymmetry and visual word recognition: Do we have a split fovea?

The brain is divided into two halves, but both hemispheres do not process information in exactly the same way. One of the first findings about the consequences of brain damage was that speech problems were more likely after injuries to the frontal part of the left brain half than after injuries to the right brain half. This finding was first established in the 19 th century by the French scientists Marc Dax and Paul Broca and remains a basic tenet of neuropsychology. For instance, after a review of a group of patients with unilateral brain damage, Bryden, Hecaen, and De Agostini (1983) concluded that about half of the right-handed patients had speech problems after left-hemisphere lesions (36 out of 70) against only 10 % after right-hemisphere lesions (five out of 60).