Development of attention in normal children: A possible corpus callosum effect

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two tests designed to examine the ability of young children to move their hands into contralateral hemispace were given to 60 normal, right‐handed 2‐ to 5‐year‐olds. Results from these tasks, line bisection and letter cancellation, indicated that the older children's performances were similar to adults’. However, on the line bisection task, the younger children did not cross the midline as well as the older children, deviating to the left with the left hand and to the right with the right hand. On letter cancellation, a similar effect was seen for the left hand, but not for the right hand. This failure to cross the midline adequately is similar to that seen in patients with lesions of the corpus callosum. Therefore, it was concluded that performance by the younger children indicated a relative immaturity of callosal function that may correspond to the normal lack of callosal myelination in young children.