Perceptual and motor laterality effects in pianists during music sight-reading

Forty-six right-handed pianists were tested in a music sight-reading task in which they had to perform on a keyboard. Stimuli were single notes or single triads (chords) presented tachistoscopically in the left or right visual field in form of musical notation or verbal labels. Left-hand, right-hand or two-hands performance was required. Results showed, besides the expected Simon effect producing faster responses for stimuli to be performed with the hand ipsilateral to the side of presentation, a complex pattern of laterality which depended primarily upon the requested motor output. A tendency in favor of the left hemisphere (right visual field, RVF) was observed, this asymmetry being significant only in the single-hand tasks. On the contrary, in the two-hands task an opposite asymmetry was observed with musical notation. Moreover, a strong unexpected role of the bass clef was observed, which penalized left hand performance in particular with LVF stimuli. This effect even overcame the Simon effect, suggesting the presence of a bias in favor of the left hemisphere in musical transposition. Results point to a variegated pattern of hemispheric asymmetries in music sight-reading which depend on both stimulus coding and motor output type (e.g. two- or single-hand performance). A RH asymmetry was observed during two-hands playing with musical notation. Conversely, playing with one hand seems more leftward lateralized. This pattern of asymmetry would reflect a LH ability in simple “core” music reading together with a RH ability in the coordination of simultaneous responses by the two hands.