Research Article

Effects of Voice Onset Time on Ear Advantage in Persian Dichotic Listening Test

Abstract

Background and Aim: The dichotic listening test is widely used to assess hemispheric asymmetry and speech lateralization. The study investigated the effect of Voice Onset Time (VOT) on the perception of Consonant-Vowel syllables in the Persian dichotic listening task.
Methods: Three 36-word lists were constructed and categorized into four VOT conditions: short-short (SS), long-long (LL), short-left/long-right (SL), and long-left/short-right (LS). A total of 71 right-handed adults with normal hearing participated.
Results: The results showed a significant effect of VOT on percentage of correct responses and ear advantage. Long-VOT syllables were reported more frequently than short-VOT syllables in both ears. The strongest right-ear advantage was observed when long-VOT stimuli were presented to the right ear, whereas presenting long-VOT stimuli to the left ear shifted performance toward the left ear, reversing the typical pattern. VOT also significantly affected the laterality index, with values shifting toward the ear receiving the long-VOT stimulus.
Conclusion: VOT, as a temporal feature of speech, plays an important role in shaping the ear advantage in dichotic listening. The results also suggest that auditory lateralization is influenced by stimulus characteristics rather than reflecting a fixed pattern.

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Keywords
Dichotic listening voice onset time lateralization consonant–vowel syllables
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1.
Majidpour A, Moheb Aleaba M, Pirouzmand Y, Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari B, Nazeri A. Effects of Voice Onset Time on Ear Advantage in Persian Dichotic Listening Test. Aud Vestib Res. 2026;.