Cerebral and sex differences in the categorization of haptic information.

This study investigated the extent to which each cerebral hemisphere categorizes stimuli varying in texture and shape. Eighteen right-handed subjects, nine males and nine females, rated the perceived dissimilarity between pairs of stimuli presented to both hands and to the right or left hand, with haptic noise in the contralateral hand. Results suggest a right hemisphere competence in the categorization of both texture and shape information. Furthermore, males showed better separation of categories for stimuli presented to both hands only.