BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 39, 539-555 (1990) Auditory Perception of Temporal and Spectral Events in Patients with Focal Left and Right Cerebral Lesions DONALD A. ROBIN Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Iowa DANIEL TRANEL Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa AND HANNA DAMASIO Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Wniwrsity of Iowa The auditory perception of temporal and spectral information was studied in subjects with lesions in the temporoparietal region of the left (LH group), or right (RH group) hemisphere (n = 5 in each group) and in five normal controls. The temporal tasks included gap detection and two complex pattern perception tasks in which subjects had to identify the placement of the two closest tones (separated by the shortest interval) within a sequence of six tones. The spectral tasks involved pitch matching and frequency discrimination. The results showed a “double dissociation”: (I) the LH group was impaired in their ability to perceive temporal information, but the perception of spectral information was normal, and (2) the RH group was impaired in their ability to perceive spectral infor- mation, but the perception of temporal information was normal. The findings are consistent with the notion that temporal processing is a function of left- hemisphere structures and that spectral processing is a function of right-hemi- sphere structures. 0 1990 Academic Press. Inc. This research was supported by NJNDS Grant PO NS 19632. Address correspondence and requests for reprints to Donald A. Robin, Ph.D., Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. We thank Ms. Linda N. Hug for her assistance in data collection and Mrs. Colleen Gardner for her secretarial support. 539 0093-934x/90 $3 .ocl Copyright 0 1990 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction m any form reserved.