Hemispheric asymmetry in the influence of language on visual perception

• Examined the hemispheric asymmetry in the effect of concepts on visual perception.
• Divided visual field paradigm combined with continuous flash suppression was used.
• We found that the effect of abstract concepts is right lateralized.
• The lateralized brain connectomes may be the neural basis of this effect.

Many studies have shown that language can affect visual perception; however, our understanding of the neural basis of linguistic influence is inadequate. This can be investigated by examining the hemispheric asymmetry of linguistic influence. The left and right hemispheres are dominant in close and distant semantic processing, respectively. In this study, we investigated whether the hemispheric asymmetry of semantic processing led to hemispheric asymmetry for concept priming on the detection of objects degraded by continuous flash suppression. We combined a priming paradigm with the divided visual field paradigm and used continuous flash suppression, which renders objects invisible. The results indicated that the hemispheric asymmetry of semantic processing led to a right lateralization in the influence of more abstract concepts on visual perception. The lateralization of brain connectomes may be the underlying neural basis of this effect.