Hemispheric asymmetry in tactile forgetting induced by tactually-guided movement

Asymmetries in tactile short-term memory related to differential specialization of the cerebral hemispheres were studied in normal human adults using the Brown-Peterson distractor task. When the distractor was an auditory arithmetic task, no difference emerged between the two hands for the retention of touches to the fingers; however, when the distractor was a tactual maze task executed by the right hand, asymmetry in favor of the left hand was observed. Specifically, when the right hand performed the tactual maze, there was greater interference with tactile memory than when the left hand performed the maze, independent of which hand received the memory material. The results support a characterization of short-term memory as embracing multiple, limited storage capacities divided along the lines of processing demands, arising from different classes of material, placed on the two cerebral hemispheres.