Callosal involvement in a lateralized Stroop task in alcoholic and healthy subjects

To investigate the role of interhemispheric attentional processes, 25 alcoholic and 28 control subjects were tested with a Stroop match-to-sample task and callosal areas were measured with magnetic resonance imaging. Stroop color-word stimuli were presented to the left or right visual field (VF) and were preceded by a color cue that did or did not match the word's color. For matching colors, both groups showed a right VF advantage; for nonmatching colors, controls showed a left VF advantage, whereas alcoholic subjects showed no VF advantage. For nonmatch trials, VF advantage correlated with callosal splenium area in controls but not alcoholic subjects, supporting the position that information presented to the nonpreferred hemisphere is transmitted via the splenium to the hemisphere specialized for efficient processing. The authors speculate that alcoholism-associated callosal thinning disrupts this processing route.