Hemispheric differences in recognition of facial expressions: a VHF-study of negative, positive, and neutral emotions.
The present study was concerned with a tachistoscopic investigation of asymmetry of recognition of different facial emotional expressions. Twenty-eight subjects had nine different drawings of facial expressions (either positive, negative, or neutral in emotional content) presented either to the left or right visual half-field. Recognition of the correct face was made for each stimulus-presentation. The results showed overall better recognition for presentations in the left half-field (LVF) (i.e., right hemisphere) compared to right half-field (RVF) (i.e., left hemisphere) presentations. Furthermore, while all three emotional categories were recognized about equally well in the right half-field, positive emotional expressions were significantly better than the neutral and negative categories when presented to the left half-field. The results are discussed in relation to previous findings of cerebral asymmetry in processing of emotional facial expressions.
Hugdahl
K
K
Department of Somatic Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway.
Iversen
P M
PM
Ness
H M
HM
Flaten
M A
MA
D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans